Feb 5, 2015 2 min read

President Barack Obama refers to last year’s budget controls as “mindless austerity.” Last year’s spending was not “mindless austerity,” but rather “mindless spending.” The cuts were not cuts at all, but just a reduction of the traditional 7 percent spending increases.

Obama proposes to increase spending this year by 7 percent. Prior to the end of the fiscal year Sept. 30, the Feds sent an email advising employees to “spend mindlessly,” so they wouldn’t “lose their money.” Here is some of the spending that occurred, just before the end of the 2014 fiscal year:

• The IRS spent $2.4 million on toner products.

• The Department of Homeland Security spent $215,016 for office chairs, plus $15,198 for two pianos.

• The U.S. Embassy in New Delhi spent $20,362 on alcoholic beverages. The State Department spent almost $100,000 for alcohol in September.

• The Department of Veterans Affairs spent $1.8 million on artwork, $562,000 of which came at the end of the fiscal year. We bet that was a great benefit for our veterans.

• The State Department spent $5 million on crystal glassware, plus $1 million on granite art for the U.S. Embassy in London.

• The Department of Agriculture spent $184,000 for toner cartridges.

• The Pentagon spent $5.5 billion on the last day of the fiscal year.

According to a report by Real Clear Markets, the federal government spent at a rate five times higher than the weekly average. This amounted to 8.7 percent of total federal spending. This is “mindless spending,” certainly not “mindless austerity.”

Robert and Diane Shepherd

Houston