1)The Federal government spends a lot of money. Unfortunately, as we have pointed out far too many times in this blog, it also wastes a lot of money:
According to reporting by the Washington Free Beacon, the White House “slightly” overpaid for a plain, beige area rug it recently purchased.
The 12 foot by 9 foot rug was purchased for $2,735 back in October.
The cost of the rug was a whopping $1,972 but outrageous delivery and padding costs increased the overall cost by almost $800.
The Beacon news report checked out the manufacturer and style with a rug retailer who says they could have gotten the exact same rug for about $1,600, a price that includes shipping and padding.
Thus, the White House paid a markup of over 70%.
Other carpet companies checked out by the Beacon said that this type of rug by this manufacturer should cost about $10-$13 per square foot or $1,000 to $1,300.
Look, the world is not going to end because the White house overpaid by 70% for a simple rug. The problem is that the Federal government does this all the time, as we have previously discussed, which probably results in billions and billions of taxpayer dollars wasted over the years on overpriced or unneeded or kickback induced, bloated purchases. And no one ever gets called onto the “carpet” for this wasteful spending.
2) To expand on our previous point, the Washington Free Beacon has also uncovered some other ridiculous government purchases:
In January they reported that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence spent $12,134 on four office chairs, or about $3,000 per chair.
A quick search of the Staples website shows that the most expensive office chair offered by Staples can be had for $911, about one third the cost of these chairs and that Staples has dozens and dozens of office chairs that have high ratings and cost less than $500 each.
Back in October the paper reported that Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, spent over $2,000 for ONE pair of drapes for his office drapes that the reporter called “uninspiring.”
Back during the Obama administration, the government spent $52,000 on curtains for the Manhattan residence of the ambassador to the United Nations, not for the office of the ambassador, but for the home of the ambassador.
No wonder we have a Federal government that has a national debt of $30,000,0000,000,000 when those in power in Washington continue this type of unnecessary and wasteful spending. The numbers do not lie and the numbers keep on coming when it comes to waste.
3) While wasteful spending by the Federal government continues to rise, overall consumer sentiment and dissatisfaction with the Biden administration continues to decline:
Consumer sentiment dropped to the worst level since 2011 and 2022 inflation expectations rose to a 41 year high.
The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index dropped to 59.7 in March from 62.8 in February.
This is in contrast to the sentiment number a year ago which was 84.9 and thus, has dropped a whopping 25 points in only 12 months.
Consumers expect prices to rise 5.4% in 2022.
In addition, the Department of Labor reported that the consumer price index soared 7.9% over the past 12 months and jumped a large .8% in just one month.
“Consumers held very negative prospects for the economy, with the sole exception of the job market,” said Richard Curtin.
The highest-ever share of households expect their finances to worsen in the coming year with the gauge of future expectations declined to 54.4, the weakest level since 2011.
Not a pretty picture being painted by these numbers. Americans are pessimistic and not happy and most of that blame lies at the feet of the Washington ruling class and the inept Biden administration.
4) One of the biggest improvements we suggested in our book, “Love My Country, Loathe My Government” was the principle that the Federal government could not spend any Federal tax money on any project that did not significantly benefit at least five states. For example, if New York state wanted to build a bridge inside the state, the Federal government would be prohibited from paying for any portion of that construction, it would be the responsibility of that state’s taxpayers to build that bridge that only they would benefit from.
This principle would then really reduce excessive and wasteful Federal government spending and eliminate the reality that the most powerful, most senior members of Congress could no longer use Federal taxpayer money to the benefit of only their constituents at the expense of the rest of the country and to polish up their reelection chances.
Unfortunately, that principle was never put into place and we are again faced with the annual Federal budget madness that spends taxpayer money on local projects that local residents should be paying for as illustrated in the recent so-called Omnibus spending legislation:
The list of pet projects in the legislation spans a mind boggling 367 pages.
Senate Majority Chuck Schumer leader is the leader in this wasteful spending with well over 140 Federally financed projects in this budget legislation for his state of New York, all geared for his state residents and funded by the rest of the country.
Senator Patrick Leahy got 79 of his projects into the legislation at a cost of $162 million Federal taxpayer dollars.
Senator Joe Manchin has at least 32 projects costing almost $50 million.
Senator Catherine is in for $38 million of Federal taxpayer funding for her state.
“It’s totally pork-barreling,” said Thomas Schatz, the president of Citizens Against Government Waste. "For at least some of them, we can see which member of Congress has requested the earmark and do further investigation into where it is, what it’s doing, who it’s for”
Let's be honest, this is just Federal overreach perpetrated by incumbent politicians who want to show their voters how good they are at shaking down the rest of the country’s taxpayers. If a local government or state government needs local or state funds, let the taxpayers in those areas pay for it. If they do not want to pay for it, then the rest of the country should not step in and wastefully spend one something that the local voter base is not willing to step up to.
The current system is not fair and equitable: it is based on Congressional seniority and power, the more powerful get more Federal taxpayer funding no matter how stupid or trivial the local project is.
Another depressing set of numbers, courtesy of the American political class: Washington bureaucracies continue to overpay and waste taxpayer money on even the most trivial purchases, consumers and voters are not happy and are very pessimistic about the economic situation and trend in the country, and Washington politicians continues to skim Federal taxpayer dollars for their own voters at the expense of the rest of the country for the sole purpose of helping themselves get reelected.
The numbers don't lie but politicians do.
