In the middle of a recession where unemployment has risen to 10 percent, we’ve seen the salaries of federal employees explode as the federal workforce continues to grow. But if you are angry about federal employees hoovering up your tax dollars, wait until you hear about this:
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spent five million dollars this month to bring 3, 600 managers to a conference in Atlanta that FAA whistleblowers and critics say was little more than an excuse to throw a three-week-long Christmas party.
“It’s the wrong time to spend five million dollars on a Christmas party for anybody’s employees, especially in the government,” said Tom Schatz, the president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a non-profit watchdog group.
But that description, outrageous as it is, doesn’t begin to do justice to what happened. ABC news was tipped off and sent a camera crew to the event. The video of the bacchanalia on the taxpayer dime must be seen to be believed — federal employees drunkenly dancing in stairwells and joking to the camera crew about almost getting arrested at federally-funded parties and paying for hookers.
The only consolation is that ABC news was tipped off to the waste by whistle blowers. Apparently there are a few honest people left in government.
