White House pushing blame on Bush administration for GSA debacle

[Denny Crane]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...ng-blame-on-bush-white-house-for-gsa-debacle/

The Obama administration is responding to the recent report that shows a federal agency spent more that $800,000 on a lavish conference near Las Vegas by putting some of the blame on the Bush administration.

“At least we have taken, bold, swift forceful action to hold those responsible accountable and put in place protections to make sure this never happened again,” a White House official told Fox News.

The Inspector General Office’s report last week about the 2010 General Services Administration conference outside of Las Vegas indicates the Obama administration knew about the trip since May 2010. The report was followed by a release of videos.

...

The administration also argued Friday night that the cost of the Western Regional Conference increased sharply under the Bush White House -- from $93,000 in 2004 to $323,855 in 2006 to $655,025 in 2008, then $840,616 in 2010, or just 28 percent under Obama.

 

[Denny Crane]

The "it's bush's fault" bit may be red meat for true believers, but I think it's old.

As far as the scandal goes, I don't get it. Sure, it's hypocritical for Obama to rag on corporations for having conferences in Vegas then have his administration do it. Maybe it's bad that the amount seems so big, at over $800K.

Yet I look at the numbers and see about $3K per person was spent on 300 people for 5 days, about $600/day each. Air fare and hotel rooms alone probably ate up most of that. The "over the top" things I see as forgivable since team building is a good thing.

If there is a scandal here, it's that there are 300 people to even send in the first place.

 

[MARIS61]

In today's world there is simply no reason for any government employees to travel anywhere for training purposes or team-building, ever.

I've been out of the Federal government for over 15 years now, and there was very little need for travel even back then.

 

[MARIS61]

But it's clear things flew grossly out of control under the Bush/Cheney reign without rebuke, and now there's outrage under Obama so he's reversing the trend.

 

[jlprk]

The jackass Mica will actually hold hearings on it. How utterly stupid. Speaking of wasting money, it looks like now, Trump gets no giveaway from Obama.

...there were much worse GSA stories during the Bush administration, one involving the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal...

In the present, the Republican chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee announced plans to hold hearings on clown-and-cheesegate. The chairman, Rep. John Mica of Florida, did acknowledge that no one in the administration had tried to impede the inspector general’s work or keep the results quiet. Perhaps he was thinking back on Lurita Doan, the Bush GSA head, who claimed that attempts to examine contracts for fraud and waste were “eroding the health of the organization” and compared the auditors to terrorists...

As soon as the inspector general issued his report, Martha Johnson, the head of the GSA, canned two top agency officials, then resigned herself. One of the now-departed deputies was overseeing a project that involves turning Washington’s Old Post Office Pavilion over to Donald Trump for a luxury hotel. There is no word on whether the uproar might derail the plan...

The Obama administration has actually had its agency chiefs reviewing the money spent on conferences since last fall, and claims it has already saved $280 million...The State Department said it has figured out how to hold most of its conferences in government facilities rather than hotels

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/04/06/2735640/gsa-scandal-clowngate-or-cheesegate.html

 

[PapaG]