Another case of your goverment wasting your money - social security conference

It must be nice to work for the federal government. I realize that this is hardly a drop in the flood of cash that the government is wasting but this $700k conference irritates me.

From the article:

A spokesperson from the SSA's regional office said the conference was essential, that teleconferencing was not an option, and that all 675 managers needed to meet in person.

I'll bet all this was essential. These poor, downtrodden government employees probably hadn't had a day off since, well, since their paid holiday for the 4th of July weekend. That was the last time they had a paid day off since, well, since Memorial day, which was the last paid day off they'd had since whatever jackass holiday they get that nobody else except bankers get.

From the article:

Costs for the conference at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa included airfare, hotel entertainment, dancers, motivational speakers, and food, an administration official said.

The dancers really are essential. When I'm in a meeting at work I have a hard time concentrating when they don't have dancers. To be honest, I have a hard time concentrating when they do have dancers. Actually, my company got rid of the dancers as a cost cutting measure so we have to make do with coffee. It's a rough life but at least I'm not a parasite.

So what kind of stuff was so critical and couldn't be handled by teleconference? Courses at the conference included included "Techniques to Empower You," "Mentoring the Generations," and "Emotional Intelligence." I really think those could be done by teleconference. The poor overworked government employees could have opened up another window and had streaming porn videos and saved the cost of the dancers.

According to the article the poor wage slaves had an after-hours casino trip (I don't mind as long as they paid their own way and weren't too hung over to pay attention the next day), family members staying with them in the hotel, and a 20-minute dance party. I wouldn't care about any of that if I thought these people actually paid for that stuff themselves, but I suspect that we paid for all that.

From the article:

Social Security Administration Statement
This was a training conference. The location was selected through the government's competitive bidding process. The facility that was selected was the lowest bidder, and we paid well-below the prescribed government rate.
-Leslie Walker, Regional Communications Director, Social Security Administration

I think that is sort of like explaining to your wife that you got a really great deal on that prostitute and she should be glad you saved some money.

The country voted for more government and by Obama we're going to get it.