Feds Spend Millions on Lobster, Golf Carts, and Pianos in One Month Spending Spree

In an annual spree to spend money during the last month of the fiscal year, the federal government spent millions on lobster tails, steak, alcohol, golf carts, and pianos in September 2018, according to a report (pdf) by OpenTheBooks.com.

Government agencies scramble to spend taxpayer money every September, lest Congress appropriate fewer funds the following year. In September last year, agencies spent $97 billion, an increase of 16 percent compared to the spending spree in fiscal year 2017, and a 39 percent increase from the same time in 2015. The spending ballooned in the final week of the fiscal year, totaling $53 billion, more than the entire month of August. The government spent more than $10 billion per day on Sept. 27 and 28. Agencies spent 10 percent of all annual contract funds during the final week.

The Department of Defense spent $4.6 million on shellfish in September, including $2.3 million for snow crab, Alaskan king crab, and crab legs and claw, and $2.3 million for lobster tail. Lobster tails cost anywhere from $20 to $30 per pound. “This kind of waste has to stop. It’s an insult to taxpayers,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) wrote on Facebook. Lobster and crab were not the only luxury foods the government spent taxpayer money on. Agencies splurged $293,245 on steak, including ribeye, top sirloin, and flank steaks, and spent $308,994 on alcohol, according to the report. Agencies also splurged $53,004 on china tableware, $673,471 on golf carts and $1.7 million musical equipment including pianos, tubas, and trombones. Taxpayers also shouldered $7.7 million for iPhones and iPads and $9.8 million on workout and recreation equipment.

The largest portion of the spending spree, more than $25 billion, went to contractors in the Washington area. Texas and California ranked second and third with almost $9 billion and over $7 billion respectively.

“As the national debt surpasses $22 trillion, it’s time to end Washington’s use-it-or-lose-it spending culture,” the report concluded. “Ending this wasteful phenomenon would go a long way toward generating big savings and winning the public’s trust.” In total, the government spent $544 billion on contracts in fiscal year 2018, part of the $4.1 trillion total budget.

The report highlights the issue of rising government spending, which is the biggest domestic threat to national security, according to Director of National Security Dan Coats. The federal budget is expected to swell to $4.75 trillion in fiscal year 2020. The total national debt is more than $22 trillion. “I’m concerned that our increasing fractious political process, particularly with respect to federal spending, is threatening our ability to properly defend our nation both in the short term and especially in the long term,” Coats said on Feb. 13.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/feds-spend-millions-on-lobster-golf-carts-and-pianos-in-one-month-spending-spree_2834659.html

OPENTHEBOOKS.COM | 200 S. FRONTAGE RD, SUITE 106, BURR RIDGE, IL 60527 | AMERICAN TRANSPARENCY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT’S USE-IT-OR-LOSE-IT SPENDING SPREE

https://www.openthebooks.com/assets/1/7/UseItOrLoseIt_Final1.PDF

IRA Claims Responsibility For Bombs Found In London, Glasgow

The IRA claimed responsibility for four letter bombs found in London and Glasgow Tuesday, and told police there is a fifth explosive that has yet to be found. The four devices arrived at three buildings in London and the University of Glasgow on March 5 and 6, CNN reported. Police issued a statement saying the devices resembled those used by “dissident groups associated with Northern-Ireland related terrorism,” and that police opened a line of inquiry into that possibility.

The IRA first claimed responsibility by contacting a local news station in Northern Ireland Monday, with police confirming that the caller used a code word common in the IRA, according to CNN. The mail bombs also sported Irish stamps and post marks, according to The Irish Times.

“This was a reckless and cowardly attack on the entire community. I condemn in the strongest possible terms the people who carried out this act,” Irish Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan said. “We must work together to reject those isolated groups who would discard the accomplishments of the peace process for all communities on these islands for their own narrow objectives. Their futile agenda will not succeed.” The individual who claimed responsibility specified that three devices had been sent to commercial targets and the remaining two were sent to British Army recruitment centers, according to The Telegraph. One of those devices remains unaccounted for. Authorities in the U.K. have contacted businesses with instructions on how to address any explosive devices they receive.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/03/12/ira-london-glasgow-bomb/

Woman Accused Of Killing Kim Jong Un’s Half Brother With VX Freed After Charges Dropped

Malaysian authorities released Monday one of two women accused of assassinating Kim Jong Un’s half-brother with VX nerve agent after prosecutors dropped her charges. Malaysian Attorney General Tommy Thomas said prosecutors dropped the charges against Siti Aisyah, 26, in response to lobbying from the government of her native Indonesia, which asked for her release at every meeting with Malaysian officials. Aisyah stood accused along with Doan Thi Huong of killing Kim Jong Nam by applying VX nerve agent to his face in February 2017 in the airport in Kuala Lumpur.

“I feel very happy. I didn’t expect that today will be the day of my freedom,” Aisyah said at a press conference, according to The Washington Post. Aisyah’s attorney, Gooi Soon Seng, also hailed the decision. “We are grateful the public prosecutor has come to this conclusion, because we truly believe she is merely a scapegoat and she is innocent,” he said. Thomas wrote in a letter to Indonesia’s minister of law and human rights that prosecutors decided to drop Aisyah’s charges and release her “taking into account the good relations” between Malaysia and Indonesia.

Aisyah and Huong have maintained since their arrests that they thought they were participating in a prank show and were going to apply lotion to a man’s face. Four North Koreans fled Malaysia on the day of Kim Jong Nam’s assassination, and authorities arrested only Aisyah and Huong. Authorities believe that Kim Jong Un had his half-brother assassinated as part of an effort to consolidate his power after he became the ruler of North Korea. Kim Jong Nam was the eldest son of their late father Kim Jong Il, and therefore presented a potential threat to Kim Jong Un’s legitimacy as ruler of North Korea. A Malaysian high court ruled in August that existing evidence warranted prosecution of the four North Korean fugitives, Aisyah, and Huong on charges of conspiracy to murder Kim Jong Nam. Huong will still stand trial, though her lawyer, Teh Poh Teik, insists that she too is just a scapegoat and says that he is seeking her release on the basis that there is no difference between her case and that of Aisyah.

“We are hoping against hope that the charges against her will be dropped,” he said. “It is unfair that despite the case being the same for both, that one could have been dropped without explanation, while the other is being set to continue.” Authorities believe that North Korean agents recruited Huong, who hails from Vietnam, while she worked at a bar in Hanoi. Her trial continues on Thursday.

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/03/11/north-korea-brother-assassinated-woman/