The Real GSA Scandal: Job-Killing Big Labor Payoffs

[Geee]

CNSnews:

Stop the presses: Big-spending Democrats are finally up in arms over a federal boondoggle. Details of the U.S. General Services Administration bacchanalia get worse by the day. We've graduated from overpriced breakfasts in Vegas, friends-and-family junkets galore and in-house videos mocking their own profligacy to extravagant bonuses, alleged kickbacks, obstructionism and bribes.

But the scandal is still small potatoes compared to the potential billions GSA is pouring down the Big Labor drain.

Whistleblowers and an independent inspector general investigation estimate that the GSA's Sin City conference cost taxpayers an estimated $1 million in 2010. Washington bureaucrats squandered another $234,000 on public relations damage control.

An interim GSA director announced Tuesday on Capitol Hill that 35 upcoming conferences would be canceled at a cost savings of less than $1 million. Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland vowed that GSA officials would be "made to pay back" taxpayers.

The arrogance of these civil servants is, of course, jaw-dropping. Regional Commissioner Jeff Neely, the Paris Hilton of GSA party animals, wrote in an invitation to personal friends: "We'll get you guys a room near us, and we'll pick up the room tab. ... I know I'm bad, but as Deb and I often say, why not enjoy it while we have it and while we can. Ain't gonna last forever."