Just
about the time I begin to think that the government is making
progress on getting their act straight, something like what I’m
about to describe hits the news and we have to wonder who’s in
charge? Last week we were made aware of the fact that over 1.8
million (that’s 1,800,000) employees of the Federal government
have been issued credit cards. These 1.8 million cards racked up
over 9 billion (that’s $9,000,000,000) in charges last year. Now,
somehow it seems that a large number of these cards have spending
limits from $20,000 to $100,000 each. In addition to this is the
fact that there doesn’t seem to be any process to review these
charges to determine if in fact they are legitimate and for
governmental purposes. The apparent misuse of these cards by
federal employees and the military has resulted in one credit card
company having to write off over $59,000,000 in bad debts.
Some of the charges that were made on these
cards included drinks and dinners at strip joints and nightclubs.
House ware charges at Home Depot, pet supplies, personal
computers, and DVD players. Several cases have involved military
personnel obtaining cash advances of up to $25,000 and then
leaving the services altogether with the debits still outstanding.
Now, I ask you is this dumb or what?
What do you think would happen to you or me
if we did something like this? We’d be under the jail. How many of
us could get away with using someone else’s credit cards, racking
up charges for stuff we are allowed to buy and then keeping the
stuff, stiffing the credit card companies and walking away with
anything happening to us? Fat chance of this happening. I don’t
know about you, but if I get anything that even resembles
something of value from somewhere… the IRS wants to know about it
and wants their fair (?) share.
During the 80’s when we were in the middle of
the recession, I managed to work out a deal on some land that I
owned with a couple of the banks…even though I didn’t make a dime
on the transaction, I had to pony up big bucks to cover what the
IRS called ‘phantom income’ or something like that. I seem to
remember that the IRS was looking at frequent flyer miles that you
might have gotten from company trips as something that was to be
taxed. So, where is the IRS when these bozos are buying stereos
and TV’s at taxpayer expense? Is partying at Hooters or strip
joints matters of national security?
In one account of this sordid mess, it was
reported that the Pentagon was slow to react to investigation of
these charges or what to do with them. Well hello, why not make
these folks fess up and pay for whatever it is that they bought on
the taxpayers nickel? Why not just levy those charges against
their salaries or retirement like we have to do to our employees
when they don’t pay taxes or child support? I guess something that
seems kind of curious to me…is why are these cards being issued in
the first place and for what purpose? I always thought the
government had strict guidelines on what they bought with items
having huge sets of descriptive specifications. So, if this is the
case, how can they possibly be going in Home Depot and buying
anything? They don’t sell $700 hammers or $1,000 toilet seats in
there. No, my friend this is just plain and simple fraud and
mismanagement.
The only other word I can think of for it is
stealing. What a shame that our system is so screwed up that the
people we put in charge of our money are the very ones stealing
it. Kind of like putting the fox inside of the hen house, isn’t
it? Course foxes don’t have the same retirement and employment
benefits as do the government employees, do they? This is totally
irresponsible management and needs to have some controls put into
place to stop this abuse of the good nature of the American
people. Comments go to www.pearyperry.com….have a good week.
