The politicians, bureaucrats, lobbyists and interest groups in Washington are hyperventilating that the federal gravy train may get sidetracked for a day or two by a shutdown fight between Republicans and Democrats.
I’m not sure why they’re so agitated. After all, the shutdown is really just a slowdown since only non-essential bureaucrats are sent home. And everyone winds up getting paid for those unplanned vacations, which is why the bureaucrats I know are crossing their fingers for a lengthy confrontation.
But that describes what may happen when the new fiscal year begins tomorrow. What’s been happening in recent days, culminating today, is a feeding frenzy of end-of-the-fiscal-year wasteful spending.
Here are some details from a Washington Post expose.
This past week, the Department of Veterans Affairs bought $562,000 worth of artwork. In a single day, the Agriculture Department spent $144,000 on toner cartridges. And, in a single purchase, the Coast Guard spent $178,000 on “Cubicle Furniture Rehab.” …All week, while Congress fought over next year’s budget, federal workers were immersed in a separate frantic drama. They were trying to spend the rest of this year’s budget before it is too late. …If they don’t, the money becomes worthless to them on Oct. 1. And — even worse — if they fail to spend the money now, Congress could dock their funding in future years. The incentive, as always, is to spend. So they spent.
If you’re a taxpayer, you’ll be especially delighted to know that the “use it or lose it” spending orgy is so intense that federal contractors have to cater lunches for their sales staff. Can’t have them away from their desks, after all!
It was the return of one of Washington’s oldest bad habits: a blitz of expensive decisions, made by agencies with little incentive to save. Private contractors — worried that sequestration would result in a smaller spending rush this year — brought in food to keep salespeople at their desks. Federal workers quizzed harried colleagues in the hallways, asking if they had spent it all yet. …“Use it or lose it” season is not marked on any official government calendars. But in Washington, it is as real as Christmas. And as lucrative. …In 2012, for instance, the government spent $45 billion on contracts in the last week of September, according to calculations by the fiscal-conservative group Public Notice. That was more than any other week — 9 percent of the year’s contract spending money, spent in 2 percent of the year.
The IRS may win the prize for the most egregious example of last-minute waste.
In 2010, for instance, the Internal Revenue Service had millions left over in an account to hire new personnel. The money would expire at year’s end. Its solution was not a smart one. The IRS spent the money on a lavish conference. Which included a “Star Trek” parody video starring IRS managers. Which was filmed on a “Star Trek” set that the IRS paid to build. (Sample dialogue: “We’ve received a distress call from the planet NoTax.”)
But it’s not just tax collectors who flush our money down the toilet in creative ways.
One recent study, for instance, found that information technology contracts signed at year’s end often produced noticeably worse results than those signed in calmer times. …they listed dumb things they had seen bought: three years’ worth of staples. Portable generators that never got used. One said the National Guard bought so much ammunition that firing it all became a chore. “When you get BORED from shooting MACHINE GUNS, there is a problem,” an anonymous employee wrote.
Impressive examples of waste, though I confess I’m curious about the part about ammo and the National Guard. Does this mean bullets are like milk and have to be fired before an expiration date?
Beats me, but at least someone in the government acknowledged that (at least up to a point) it’s cool to fire a machine gun. Maybe that person should hook up with the Texas cop who likes tanks.
Oh, and you’ll be happy to know that spendaholic bureaucrats and crafty interest groups keep track of time zones so they can squander money until the very last second.
On Monday, Richer’s people will sell until midnight. Then they will keep selling. “Money rolls across the continent,” the feds say. Cash not spent in Washington might be spent by federal offices in California in the three hours before it is midnight there. When it is midnight in California — 3 a.m. in Washington — they will keep on. There are federal offices in Hawaii, after all. And it will still be three hours until midnight there.
Makes me think that we may need a slogan for the bureaucracy. Perhaps this modification of the Postal Service’s unofficial motto: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night – nor even different time zones – stays these bureaucrats from spending every possible penny of other people’s money.”
But let’s close on an upbeat note. Whether you give credit to the Tea Party, to Republicans, to gridlock, or to Obama, the good news is that the federal government in the past two years has been wasting money at a slower rate.
So taxpayers can smile…or at least not frown as much. The bureaucracy and contractors may be throwing a party today, but not with the same reckless abandon they displayed between 2001 and 2010.
[…] I wrote that it would have been better if the shutdown started even earlier to stop bureaucrats from their usual end-of-fiscal-year spending […]
[…] I wrote that it would have been better if the shutdown started even earlier to stop bureaucrats from their usual end-of-fiscal-year spending […]
“For American taxpayers, the war will continue at least until midcentury. Think of all the families of the dead soldiers to be compensated for their loss, all the wounded with their health care bills, all the brain damaged veterans at the VA. Think of the ongoing cost of their drugs and prosthetics and benefits. Medical and disability costs alone are projected to reach $754 billion. Not to mention the hefty retirement pay of all those generals who issued all those reports of progress as they so ambitiously fought more than one war leading nowhere.” Anne Jones… from “The Forgotten War
12 Years in Afghanistan Down the Memory Hole”
what American veterans need is top notch medical care and administrative competence from their government… not art work……………..
troll……………………………………..
Artwork in hospitals speeds actual recovery. freemkt61 no doubt would be happier if injured vets took longer to recover?
Vets shouldn’t have to endure hardship at each point in their service. As George Washington discovered, that breeds contempt in even the most noble group of soldiers, and that can be great trouble.
Thinking ahead and remembering history doesn’t appear to be a strong suit here, today. Ever?
Nicki, one of the greatest things that struck me when I moved back into private companies from government service was how private companies waste money with impunity, in things that would get people jailed in federal government service. Yes, the end-of-the-fiscal-year spending spree is odd — and it’s weird when Congress imposes a stupidly thought-out, destructive freeze or cuts. Not different in the private sector, except scale.
The cuts hurt people, real people like you. It’s good you don’t see Dan’s gloating and calling this a good thing as cheering — one could be driven to tears or violence, I’m sure.
Doesn’t change the fact that the great majority of spending, especially in government, is tightly controlled, and does a lot of good, and this GOP-led folly endangers our economy, our credit rating, and crushes real people like you. Good to crush people? No. Never.
The government has become an absurd caricature of a dying superpower. That the “…the Department of Veterans Affairs bought $562,000 worth of artwork. In a single day…” when our veterans are left wanting is despicable on a moral and fiscal level. More good words we all need to ‘hear’. http://coldwarwarrior.com/
Ed, as someone who is getting shafted TWICE this year (the first time with the 20 percent loss of my paycheck to furloughs this summer, and now this), I don’t understand where you see “cheering” in Dan’s piece. He’s absolutely correct on our budgeting and spending habits. Agencies DO go on spending binges during the month of September. If they don’t spend all the money they’re allocated, they will get less next year, and they can’t have that. So they buy furniture, lamps, note pads by the truckload, and basically anything and everything in order to keep their money.
Meanwhile, real people are getting screwed, and screwed hard. I don’t know where my rent or groceries will come from. Or car payments. Or anything else. All this while my agency just spent millions of dollars on brand new lobby furniture.
Congress and the executive staff are still getting paid, regardless of their failure to do their jobs. They’ve somehow found money for that. The military, and those considered “essential” are being forced to come to work, and they are NOT getting paid “until funds become available.” This is from our latest memo. So while Congress jerks off, people are being forced to work for free.
And no, we’re not getting money back for this particular furlough, if we’re not considered “essential,” which makes you wonder how they define “essential.”
Of course, the private sector won’t care, because they’re still getting their welfare checks, their Social Security checks, their Medicare, etc. Air Traffic controllers will still be working, as will most “national security” personnel. So of course, the citizens of this nation don’t think a government shutdown is a big deal! They won’t get affected by it. You want to see people squeal? Cut off their bennies!
I don’t think Dan’s pointing out of the absurdity of the situation is creepy or macabre. The absurdity itself is just sad.
Just like Osama bin Laden on September 11, 2001, you’re in a different time zone cheering the shut down of the U.S.
Do you understand how creepy, macabre, and unAmerican that sounds?
Smile as the nation crumbles. At least Nero is reputed have had some talent at the violin.
Reblogged this on U.S. Constitutional Free Press.