May 13, 2014

I'm not a fan of our government wasting our tax dollars, but this fake outrage by Faux "news" over the IRS supposedly wasting money on office furniture strikes me as pretty ridiculous. First of all, when you're looking at the total budget of the United States government, $96 million over five years is a drop in the bucket.

It's also extremely obvious to anyone paying attention that the right's attacks on the IRS have nothing to do with whether or not they're actually wasting money.

They want an excuse to de-fund them so they can't audit these tax exempt organizations that are funding their political campaigns.

And if Sen. John Thune and Greta Van Susteren would like to go after some government waste, how about they start at the Pentagon and take a look at our military spending? I'm pretty sure that $100 million over five years the IRS spent that they're bitching about here is just a rounding error when it comes to what the Department of Defense is spending every year.

Here's more from Fox's blog: Report: IRS Spent Nearly $100M on Office Furniture Under Obama Admin:

A new report says that the IRS spent nearly $100 million on new office furniture under President Barack Obama.

Read more below from FoxNews.com:

The IRS has spent $96.5 million on office furniture under the Obama administration and is now claiming it has insufficient funding to adequately serve taxpayers.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew testified before the House two weeks ago about the IRS’ need for additional funding for the upcoming fiscal year. The IRS is currently seeking an increase of $1.2 billion—a 7 percent raise over its FY 2014 $11.29 billion budget. It would bring the agency’s FY 2015 budget to $12.48 billion.

A review of contracts by the Washington Free Beacon shows the IRS in the past five fiscal years has spent $96.5 million refurbishing IRS offices across the country. Those contracts include fiscal years 2010 through 2014.

That amount already exceeds what the agency spent during the entire eight years under President George W. Bush, fiscal years 2002 through 2009.

The purchases during the current administration show contracts are for various amounts. They range from several millions to hundreds of thousands of dollars for each agency office.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune went “On The Record” to discuss the report, blasting the IRS for “gross mismanagement" and blaming "a systemic problem with the agency."

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