$146 million would pay for a lot of Medicare joint replacements and broken hips.
WASHINGTON - Federal employees wasted at least $146 million over a one-year period on business- and first-class airline tickets, in some cases simply because they felt entitled to the perk, congressional investigators say.
A draft report by the Government Accountability Office, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press, is the first to examine compliance with travel rules across the federal government following reports of extensive abuse of premium-class travel by Pentagon and State Department employees.
Among the worst offenders: the State Department, whose employees typically fly abroad on official business.
[...]
Investigators found that senior officials often flew business- or first-class because they felt entitled to the perk.
"Entitled" would be the word I'd choose. This is the same mentality that lets climate warriors Al "Carbon Bigfoot" Gore and Laurie David fly around in private jets advising their minions to transform their own meager lives, the poor bastards. You all in the government, could you do us a favor? Please stop acting like you're special just because your rich Uncle Sam signs your paycheck.
10/4/07 1140: Jay Tea has another story of a government bureaucracy overstepping it's bounds. They didn't really sell data obtained via professional licensing, did they?
10/6/07 0900: Ah, my first Insta-lanche, and it only took three years! Thanks, Glenn.
