Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) appeared on CNN's American Morning today calling on President Barack Obama to fire everyone responsible for staging extravagant conferences over the last few years that involved excessive spending on food and beverages.
According to an audit released earlier this week, the DOJ spent $490,000 on 10 events between Oct. 2007 and Sept. 2009 with menu items that included $16 muffins, Swedish meatballs that cost $5 a piece, Beef Wellington appetizers that cost $7.32 per serving and snacks of Cracker Jacks, popcorn and candy bars that amounted to $32 per person. The department's Office on Violence Against Women spent $65 per person at a lunch for 65 people. Coffee at the same conference cost more than $1 an ounce.
“Some conferences featured costly meals, refreshments, and themed breaks that we believe were indicative of wasteful or extravagant spending – especially when service charges, taxes, and indirect costs are factored into the actual price paid for food and beverages,” the report reads, citing a $76-per-person lunch at one workshop.
"$16 muffins and $600,000 for event planning services are what make Americans cynical about government and why they are demanding change," said Grassley, who is the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"The Justice Department appears to be blind to the economic realities our country is facing," he said. "People are outraged, and rightly so. The Inspector General's office just gave a blueprint for the first cuts that should be made by the (deficit-cutting) supercommittee."
He told CNN that “unless people are fired, and heads roll, you never get changes made" and said the responsibility to do so is with the president.
“Congress can’t fire people. So it’s got to be the president. That’s where the buck stops. He delegates it to other people. And somebody in the senior core of executives has got to just decide we aren’t going to spend $16 for muffins, and anybody who does is going to be fired.”
He went on to blame the department’s extravagance on “a culture of elitism” in Washington, saying that political appointees and senior executives have come to expect such lavish treatment because they are "somebody of high level."
“Well, it’s that sort of elitism and the culture in Washington that we ought to encourage elitism — that’s wrong,” Grassley said.
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
Outrage Grows over DOJ's $16 Muffins
By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
Lawmakers are calling for "heads to roll" at the Department of Justice (DOJ) following revelations of extravagant spending on conferences that included $16 muffins, $5 meatballs and $32 a-head snack breaks.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) appeared on CNN's American Morning today calling on President Barack Obama to fire everyone responsible for staging extravagant conferences over the last few years that involved excessive spending on food and beverages.
According to an audit released earlier this week, the DOJ spent $490,000 on 10 events between Oct. 2007 and Sept. 2009 with menu items that included $16 muffins, Swedish meatballs that cost $5 a piece, Beef Wellington appetizers that cost $7.32 per serving and snacks of Cracker Jacks, popcorn and candy bars that amounted to $32 per person. The department's Office on Violence Against Women spent $65 per person at a lunch for 65 people. Coffee at the same conference cost more than $1 an ounce.
“Some conferences featured costly meals, refreshments, and themed breaks that we believe were indicative of wasteful or extravagant spending – especially when service charges, taxes, and indirect costs are factored into the actual price paid for food and beverages,” the report reads, citing a $76-per-person lunch at one workshop.
"$16 muffins and $600,000 for event planning services are what make Americans cynical about government and why they are demanding change," said Grassley, who is the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"The Justice Department appears to be blind to the economic realities our country is facing," he said. "People are outraged, and rightly so. The Inspector General's office just gave a blueprint for the first cuts that should be made by the (deficit-cutting) supercommittee."
He told CNN that “unless people are fired, and heads roll, you never get changes made" and said the responsibility to do so is with the president.
“Congress can’t fire people. So it’s got to be the president. That’s where the buck stops. He delegates it to other people. And somebody in the senior core of executives has got to just decide we aren’t going to spend $16 for muffins, and anybody who does is going to be fired.”
He went on to blame the department’s extravagance on “a culture of elitism” in Washington, saying that political appointees and senior executives have come to expect such lavish treatment because they are "somebody of high level."
“Well, it’s that sort of elitism and the culture in Washington that we ought to encourage elitism — that’s wrong,” Grassley said.
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) appeared on CNN's American Morning today calling on President Barack Obama to fire everyone responsible for staging extravagant conferences over the last few years that involved excessive spending on food and beverages.
According to an audit released earlier this week, the DOJ spent $490,000 on 10 events between Oct. 2007 and Sept. 2009 with menu items that included $16 muffins, Swedish meatballs that cost $5 a piece, Beef Wellington appetizers that cost $7.32 per serving and snacks of Cracker Jacks, popcorn and candy bars that amounted to $32 per person. The department's Office on Violence Against Women spent $65 per person at a lunch for 65 people. Coffee at the same conference cost more than $1 an ounce.
“Some conferences featured costly meals, refreshments, and themed breaks that we believe were indicative of wasteful or extravagant spending – especially when service charges, taxes, and indirect costs are factored into the actual price paid for food and beverages,” the report reads, citing a $76-per-person lunch at one workshop.
"$16 muffins and $600,000 for event planning services are what make Americans cynical about government and why they are demanding change," said Grassley, who is the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"The Justice Department appears to be blind to the economic realities our country is facing," he said. "People are outraged, and rightly so. The Inspector General's office just gave a blueprint for the first cuts that should be made by the (deficit-cutting) supercommittee."
He told CNN that “unless people are fired, and heads roll, you never get changes made" and said the responsibility to do so is with the president.
“Congress can’t fire people. So it’s got to be the president. That’s where the buck stops. He delegates it to other people. And somebody in the senior core of executives has got to just decide we aren’t going to spend $16 for muffins, and anybody who does is going to be fired.”
He went on to blame the department’s extravagance on “a culture of elitism” in Washington, saying that political appointees and senior executives have come to expect such lavish treatment because they are "somebody of high level."
“Well, it’s that sort of elitism and the culture in Washington that we ought to encourage elitism — that’s wrong,” Grassley said.
© All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace® http://www.womenofgrace.com
