Posted on 03/01/2018 12:21:37 PM PST by ilovesarah2012
Anyone who is appalled by this needs to get a grip on reality. I worked as the real estate guy for a large regional commercial auction and liquidation company for some years and saw HUD and the FDIC loose millions of dollars on properties we sold at current market values. One POS mortgage broker working in the slums of Baltimore could cost the FHA millions in bogus rowhouse-flip scams. So thirty one large for custom hardwood furniture is probably less than the scumbags ripping off the government with real estate flip frauds is what one of them would pay to panel and floor his four car garage.
I’ve had a lot of work done on our home in the last few years. I always get a few quotes and the range amazes me. Just had part of our roof redone and got quotes from $3200 to 7900. Had the whole interior painted and got quotes from $1800 to 5000 with me buying the paint.
I’m looking to have our pool tile redone now and as usual, huge range.
It also helps to marry the heir to the third-largest Anheuser Busch distributorship in the USA, doing an estimated $400M of business per year. That helps pay for 7 houses and a private plane and the associated staff and maintenance. The VA check is a rounding error to this guy.
The board I’m on meets once a week & we use 8 card tables as our conference table with folding chairs, just like we did 40 years ago. We upgraded the seating arrangements last year, one of the ladies sewed cushions out of leftover fabric because she thought the seats could use a little padding.
I’m not suggesting, however that in this case HUD eat on brand new card tables. Off topic aside - I bought a few new ones at Walmart last year and asked one of the employees where I could find them. She asked me “What’s a card table”?
True story.
I had a chance to be in a hidden back room at a computer related establishment that could only be accessed by a store employee who knew the keycode. They were very proud of their $100,000+ conference room. I fully expected to see the company’s high-end computers in use in such a business environment. No joy. The $75,000 table had built in, hidden USB power ports. That’s it. The presenter had to bring in his own laptop and projector and display his pictures on the blank wall. I asked for a DVD of the event. They never even considered that recording capacity might come in handy. All the trappings were eye candy without any functionality.
This is what happens, IMHO, when an established institution has a large budget to spend. They needed a conference room, they gave the job to an interior designer and got something that would not have been out of place 50 or even 100 years ago. They got a big, fancy table and a bunch of $4,000 leather chairs. Let a techie do the same room and they would have gotten something out of Startrek.
I think the bureaucracy and the fact that it did things the way it was always done in the past is squarely to blame, for once the Fifth Column got wind of the initial kerfuffle they welcomed the chance to make the administration look look like a bunch of profligate looters. Ben Carson and everybody else in this administration have to be aware of how the enemy tries to skew the optics of a situation against them.
You know what, I really think it is great when someone posts an article only to have the first line being the same as the headline and then it is reaped two more time just incase you forgot to read it the first two time.
“communications director Raffi Williams “
I think that’s Juan Williams’ son. I think all his sons are conservative and that must make him crazy.
So now they will buy shabby new furniture instead of nice stuff that would have lasted a long time."
BINGO
Buying furniture for the govt is an eye opening experience. The rules are many and set for regular office type furniture (steel or sawdust and glue); which will look like trash in 7 years.
I will give an example. Our Officer's club really needed an overhaul. The furniture looked like it came out of a really old "Days Inn." The Commanding General's wife ( a really nice lady) took an interest. When the estimate came back, she was aghast. She told them that if they could find a legal way for her to buy "used furniture" she could do it for 1/3 the cost. After bouncing around Base Legal for a few months, a way was found. For the next two months, she and her friends went to the local antique shops. The result was some very high quality furniture, e.g. solid walnut early 20th century, at less than 1/3 the original estimate for new furniture.
OBTW, the funds for the officer's club are not taxpayer funds. The funds are generated by money generated by the O Club, but still have to follow more rules than would choke a maggot.
Nice result!
I can’t imagine all the stupid regulations that go into something seemingly as simple as a new furniture set.
Exactly! And probably HAVE done.
It's jaw-dropping! Where in Florida is this house? Just curious.
Conservative: I’ll work and save my money and maybe I can get a nice House like that guy has.
Liberal: Look at the Rich SOB’s House. I hate Rich People.
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