Home Improvements for a U.S. Ambassador

In case you missed it in the rapid-fire news cycle of the Trump impeachment inquiry, key witness and U.S. ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland was revealed to have spent more than $1 million in taxpayer funds on renovations to his homes in Brussels and Washington, D.C. Far from the first administration official to be implicated for lavish personal spending, Sondland's purchases included $33,000 for Italian handmade furniture, $13,000 for a "split heat system Jacuzzi/swimming pool," $95,000 for the installation of an "outdoor living pod/pergola," and $100,000 for his family to relocate during the renovation process.

Crab and Lobster Splurge

Toward the end of each fiscal year, federal agencies tend to splurge on outside contractors in a frenzy to run out their budget, lest they come in under and lose the funds for the next year. Of the $544 billion allotted for outside contractors in 2018, for example, almost $97 billion was spent in September, the last month of the fiscal year. The Department of Defense was responsible for almost two-thirds of these last-minute expenditures, with the most newsworthy items being $2.1 million on games and toys, $490 million for furniture, and $4.6 million on crab and lobster tail.

Prime Cuts 2019

To help prevent this fiscal disaster from occurring, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) is releasing Prime Cuts 2019, which has been published since 1993.  The 2019 version contains 620 recommendations that would save taxpayers $433.8 billion in the first year and $3.9 trillion over five years.