Desperate to avoid the blame for wasting taxpayer money, the Obama administration has successfully duped Politico into publishing a false report about General Services Administration conference spending.
Citing “a government source,” Politico reports that spending on the biannual General Services Administration Western Region Conference grew “248 percent increase between 2004 and 2006” and “doubled again between 2006 and 2008.”
But documents provided by the House Committee on Government on Oversight and Government Reform shows that Politico’s source is wrong. The GSA spent $401,024 on the 2004 conference compared to $323,855 in 2006. That is a 19 percent decrease in spending. The Obama administration spent $840,616 on the 2010 GSA Western Regions Conference.
The perception that the federal government wastes tax dollars undermines support for new government spending. The Obama administration, who wants to massively increase spending, has fought to show that they can be trusted to spend efficiently. A GSA conference that included a clown, a mind-reader, and commemorative coins undermines that effort. Hence the Obama effort to shift the blame to Bush.
Obama’s effort to reestablish trust in government efficiency, however, are not working. According to Gallup, Americans believe that the federal government wastes 51 cents of every dollar it spends, the highest percentage of waste recorded since Gallup began asking the question in 1979.
