The next time someone in government says they can't afford to cut spending, bring up the $16 muffin.
An audit of the Justice Department has found incredible amounts of wasteful spending. Justice Department auditors also criticized a $76-per-person lunch at a San Francisco hotel, featuring slow-cooked pork carnitas, hearts of romaine salad and coffee at $8.24 a cup. Not even Starbucks charges that much.
This could be the equivalent of the $600 Pentagon toilet seat. Remember that?
All of this and more are contained in a report by the department's acting Inspector General, who cites "wasteful and extravagant spending" at 10 law enforcement conferences spanning the previous and current administrations: Descriptions of brownies and cookies costing the government nearly $10 each and Beef Wellington hors d'oeuvres at $7.32 a serving.
Read all about it in yesterday's Washington Post and then do something about it.
I'm Cal Thomas in Washington.
Publication date: September 22, 2011
