Trump’s Agencies Spent $11 Billion Last Week In Year-End Spending Spree

Still very swampy up there. Much swampier than it should be at this point. In fact the alligators aren’t even sweating things.

(From Forbes)

Every September, the end of the fiscal year sparks a “use it or lose it” spending frenzy as federal agencies race to use up what’s left in their annual budgets. It’s a phenomenon that should drive taxpayers crazy. Agencies are afraid that if they spend less than their budget allows, Congress might send them less money in the next year. Agencies often try to spend everything that’s left instead of admitting they can operate on less.

Here are the top ten ways the government wasted taxpayer money in the last week of FY2017:

1. The Swamp Starts Here – Even the president was in on this year’s spending frenzy. In the last week of FY2017, President Donald Trump’s office alone spent $21.8 million, which is more than three times the $6 million former President Barack Obama’s office spent to close out FY2016. Trump’s spending included $6.2 million in electrical hardware and supplies; $490,000 on tents and tarps; $489,517 on furniture; $10,612 on floor coverings; and $197,438 on newspapers and periodicals…

…In the midst of the government’s year-end spending spree, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) introduced the Bonuses for Cost-Cutters Act to curb “use it or lose it” spending. Paul’s bill would expand current law to pay bonus happy bureaucrats who identify unneeded or surplus funds and redirect 90 percent of those savings to deficit reduction.

The private-sector uses zero-based budgeting – where all expenses need to be justified from the ground up and every function within an organization is audited for cost. As a businessman, the president should know this.

This bonanza is a disappointment but an expected disappointment. The President knows better. This could have been a great opportunity to make a point.

Click here for the article.

http://www.againstcronycapitalism.org/