By Michael Lotfi,
According to Washington Times journalist Jim McElhatton, the US State Department spent approximately $180,000 for liquor to stockpile US embassy liquor cabinets as the federal government prepared to shut down in September.
The $180k September liquor tab ends the fiscal year, which brought the total liquor costs to more than $400,000 for the year. This almost $1/2 million tab is more than 3x the tab for FY 2008.
The outlandish bills include:
– $5,625 for “gratuity wine” at the embassy in Rio de Janeiro on Sept. 29, which was followed by $5,925 for “gratuity whiskey” on the day the shutdown began.
-$22,416 in wine at the embassy in Tokyo.
-$15,900 in bourbon and whiskey in Moscow.
According to the report, the State Department purposefully went on a buying binge just before and during the shutdown so that there wouldn’t be any excess funds in their budgets, which would expose themselves to congressional budget cuts. Rather than save the tax-payers money, the feds opted to binge on liquor. Never-mind the fact that they would have had budget surplus if they hadn’t bought $180k worth of liquor.
To read more absurd ways the US government wastes your money, check out this article by Kristin Tate, Benswann.com journalist.
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