Like any good scandal, the controversy over the wild spending for a 2010 conference put on by the General Services Administration has reached YouTube.
The House Oversight Committee, headed up by Darrell Issa, released a video this morning of GSA’s Region 7 singing a soulful tune about going green.
Let the contradictory nature of holding up paper signs about going green wash over you while you enjoy soothing lyrics such as “POTUS wants a press event, a project he can show … are you ready for a miracle? GSA is going green!”
That new video came only days after the committee released the following video which shows a GSA employee bragging about how much money he would spend if he were commissioner. It’s a takeoff of Travie McCoy’s “Billionaire,” but instead of singing about how bad he wants to be a billionaire, the lyrics go like this:
“Obama better prepare, when I’m Commissioner.
I’d have a road show like (Acting Regional GSA Administrator for Region Jeffrey) Neely, every time you see me rolling on 20s yeah, in my GOV.
Spend BA 61 on all fun.
ATF can’t touch GS-15 guns!
Cause I buy everything your field office can’t afford.
Every GS-5 would get a top hat award.
Donate my vacation, love to the nation,
I’ll never be under OIG investigation.”
Looks like the video spoke too soon. Now an all out investigation has been launched, and eight high-ranking employees of the GSA have resigned, been fired or placed on leave.
Issa is quick to point to the lack of oversight by the Obama administration as the cause of the calamity.
“This administration knew about this 11 months ago and they didn’t act until the press got wind of it. This is typically what has been happening in this administration. They are only transparent when they are discovered,” Issa said.
Obama’s supporters were quick with a response — though, in my opinion, a rather overused an insufficient one: It’s all Bush’s fault!
According to The Hill:
“A Democratic staffer pointed out that spending on the conference had dramatically risen from $93,000 in President Bush’s first term to $655,000 in 2008, while the controversial $840,000 amount in 2010 under President Obama only represented a 28% increase.”
Really? That’s the excuse? “Well, he did it!”
On Monday’s episode of “Fox & Friends,” ex-GSA Administrator Lurita Doan struck back.
“They love to blame George Bush for all of their problems,” she said. “The fact of the matter is that there can be no comparison whatsoever, and when you look at it, it’s one of these situations where there’s simply no way that you can excuse the kinds of excesses that went on.”
Excesses like clowns, mind readers and commemorative coins.
These videos, now posted on YouTube for everyone to see, display the gross excesses that went on at the conference in an extremely bright light, and may prove to be a major liability for Obama in the upcoming election.
While it might be difficult to explain to the American public exactly what the GSA does, it certainly won’t be difficult to explain the wastefulness of spending $3,000 a person on a conference when the debt is skyrocketing and many Americans still haven’t found a job.
jhuseman@housingwire.com
@JessicaHuseman
