More Plundering of Taxpayers
In the Washington Times today, Jim McElhatton writes the State Department purchased $70,000 worth of President Obama’s 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father.” The books were purchased as “Christmas gratuities and (for) stocking ‘key libraries around the world.” McElhatton continues:
“The U.S. Embassy in Egypt, for instance, spent $28,636 in August 2009 for copies of Mr. Obama's best-selling 1995 memoir. Six weeks earlier, the embassy had placed another order for the same book for more than $9,000, federal purchasing records show.
“About the same time, halfway around the world, the U.S. Embassy in South Korea had the same idea and spent more than $6,000 for copies of “Dreams from My Father.”
"One month later, the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, spent more than $3,800 for hardcover copies of the Indonesian version of Mr. Obama's “The Audacity of Hope,” records show.
“A review of the expenditures in a federal database did not reveal any examples of State Department purchases of books by former Presidents George W. Bush or Bill Clinton. The purchases of Mr. Obama's literary work mostly, but not always, took place in the months after Mr. Obama captured the White House.”
The Times reporter also included comments by a representative of Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) questioning the State Department’s purchases, as well as comments from a State Department bureaucrat attempting to justify their plunder of America’s taxpayers.
“Leslie Paige, a spokeswoman for Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group, said if the federal government is looking to cut costs, eliminating purchases of Mr. Obama's books is a good place to start.
“It's inappropriate for U.S. taxpayer dollars to be spent on this,” she said. “This sounds like propaganda.”
“But State Department spokesman Noel Clay said the book purchases followed regular government procurement rules. He said diplomats have long used books as a way to help broker talks on important foreign-policy matters.”
Granted that $70,000 will not make even a serious dent in the $1.3 trillion budget deficit, but if the government potentates are wasting $70,000, what chance is there of their eliminating the “big ticket” items needed to eliminate the budget deficit?
HT Mark Levin Show.