Okay. Who is to blame THIS time? Bush? A tsunami? European markets?

Who is going to get the blame? Republicans in Congress? Unelected judges? Global warming?

Somebody or something has to be held responsible for the Secret Service’s not so secret service, but I can tell you nobody is more elated to hear that those who guard the president are caught in a hooker scandal than the GSA.

Today, the GSA begins to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. So extensive is the investigation into the GSA’s rampant spending sprees, absurd videos bragging about their rampant spending sprees and their Vegas convention to award and reward themselves for their rampant spending sprees that, in all, there will be 4 separate committees looking into the matter.

Of course, last week, as more videos were coming out, blame was assessed to George W. Bush and his administration.

Really?

Jeffery Neely, who put together the whole GSA Vegas Experience, is going to plead the 5^th. Oh, the committee can ask whatever they want but…Neely will plead the 5^th over and over again. In fact, he didn’t even think it necessary for him to appear in DC this morning.

Remember, this “conference” took place in October 2010.

In July 2011, Obama appointee and GSA Deputy Administrator, Susan Brita, fired off an email to other GSA Administrators saying the agency’s inspector general found “no substantive agenda” at the conference. Brita also said that the costs associated with a clown suit, bicycles for a training exercise, tuxedos and a mind-reader “didn’t lend themselves to the claim of a substantive conference.”

In a bit of bad news for the Secret Service, it seems that Brazilian hookers don’t lend themselves to a claim of a substantive conference either but…I digress…

Brita also wanted to know, “were to hit the press, what would public reaction be? What would congressional reaction be?”

While there are and will continue to be some within the Obama administration who will point to the Brita email as proof that they weren’t ignoring the situation, one must remember that that email, and others, were written in July 2011 and it’s now April 2012 and we’re just now finding out about the whole situation.

In other words, while Brita and others clearly knew and did not agree with the way $820,000.00 was spent in October 2010…NOBODY bothered to actually blow the whistle and put a stop to it.

Stunningly, the GSA has 12,500 employees to watch over how YOUR money is being spent. That makes 12,500 potential whistle blowers and not a single one puckered up.

There are those who claim the $820,000.00 spent on the GSA conference in Vegas is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to total government spending. To some extent they’re correct. It is a drop in the bucket, but can’t a bucket be drained one drop at a time?

GSA represents a hole in the bottom of the bucked from which YOUR money leaks out drop by drop…wasted drop by drop. It’s clearly not the only hole in the bucket.

START PLUGGING THE HOLES…STOP WASTING MONEY.

Jeffery Neely is currently on “Administrative Leave.” That means WE are paying him to plead the 5^th at today’s congressional hearing.

Drip…Drip…Drip…

The GSA is in the business of real estate acquisition, property management, office equipment acquisition, travel…All the things government needs to perform their duties. They work with law enforcement, policy, regulations, transportation and a wide variety of other things.

The GSA is divided among 11 regions.

Do the math.

12,500 employees equals 1,136 employees per region and averages 250 employees per state…to handle federal government needs. Everything from acquiring a building to cars, copiers and printers, office chairs and overseeing regulations.

They also have interns who got their own conference.

Drip…Drip…drip…

They are supposed to spend your money wisely but, it seems, their primary goal is just to spend your money.

Ultimately, it appears the GSA is accountable to US. Every year, they release a “report” on how and where they spend YOUR money.

Have YOU ever heard of this report? Ever READ the report? Here’s the link to the 2011 report.

It’s riveting and I suggest 90% bullcrap. Only someone IN the government is going to make heads or tails of it and it covers their spending in the broadest possible terms. Let’s face it, were they to issue figures on every pencil, chair, vehicle, gas purchase, rent, build out etc. it would take a lifetime to produce each year’s report and 10 lifetimes to read through it.

Is what has been going on in the GSA against the law? Could criminal charges be filed?

If anyone was stealing taxpayer money…Yes.

If all they were doing was wasting it…No.

That’s government for ya.

Clearly, there are those within the GSA who had no part in the wastefulness. Keep them. Clearly, there are many who DID play a big role in it. FIRE them.

Reassess the need for 12,500 employees. Reduce the total staff by 25%. If they’re still able to get the job done…reduce it again next year by another 10% and so on until the need and the number of GSA employees reaches its balance.

Figure out a way to hand out award for saving money instead of wasting money.

Teleconference when necessary. That seems to work in the private sector.

No more Vegas conferences, no more clowns, mind readers, bicycles or $4 dollar shrimp. No more videos, hats off prizes or 5 day trips to Hawaii for a ribbon cutting. No more paid vacations for interns. If you get caught wasting OUR money…No more paid administrative leave.

What I find as absurd as the way GSA has handled OUR money is a president who, while the story breaks, the videos go viral, people get subpoenaed and plead the 5^th, while Vegas conferences and Hawaiian ribbon cuttings take place and tax dollars are thrown away, travels the nation and demands more tax money.

Obama’s actions, like the actions of the GSA, are not illegal but they do, in fact, fly in the face of the American people.

But, as least, as far as we know, the GSA had nothing to do with acquiring hookers for the Secret Service in South America.