The GSA and the entitlement mentality
I have been negligent in not writing about the GSA scandal up to this point but as the scandal continues to grow I feel as if it is time to touch on this scandal however briefly. I will not go into all the details of this scandal as everyone who is paying attention already knows the details–from Las Vegas trips to island hopping as a birthday present to a weeklong business trip to Hawaii for a one hour ribbon cutting ceremony–there has been a long train of abuses within the department which according to the mission statement on their website is dedicated to government efficiency and a policy of “no waste.”
Apparently the GSA doesn’t apply its own standards to itself, but I think the most appalling revelations in this scandal are the rap videos made by GSA employees in which they brag about their abuses of taxpayer money because I think it shows us the entitlement mentality which the government has been trying to spread throughout the voting public in order to win political support has actually crept into the government itself. (The GSA is not alone in this mentality as is evidenced by the fact that Utah Republican Orrin Hatch recently said he is offended that someone would dare to run against him in the primary–apparently he feels this seat is rightfully his and nobody has the right to try to take it away from him.)
GSA employees either do not give a damn about the money being spent on their extravaganzas because they aren’t spending their own money, or they feel as if they are entitled to live the high life on the backs of taxpaying Americans and at this point I don’t know which scenario is worse.
At this point you have to wonder who is overseeing the overseers, who is holding these people accountable, and is there a lack of leadership at the very top of the federal government that has made scandals like this one and the scandal involving the Secret Service possible? Perhaps they feel as if nobody is going to question their actions or hold them responsible. And is it possible that this lack of leadership has emboldened their entitlement mentality for it is clear to me that these people actually feel as if they have done nothing wrong.
America's Watchtower 
It is abuse of power and authority, if you ask me. The guilty parties seem to believe it was/is their privilege to spend so extravagantly. At the same time, we have American families who are barely scraping by, barely making ends meet, if at all.
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Exactly Larry! The fact that while so many Americans are struggling just to get by these people were abusing their power and our money is what makes this story so maddening.
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This is Jason Chaffetz doing his JOB! Maybe we need more elected to Congress and something might get done. Entitled, my butt!!!!
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Sorry Steve, didn’t mean to put the VIDEO, just the link.
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No apology needed, thanks for sharing it!
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The behavior of middle-management often reflects the style of upper management.
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Exactly! They are only doing it because they could get away with it and this has to be a reflection on the Obama regime.
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This is a microcosm of the failure of a centralized government entitlement state. They wouldn’t be spending their own money like that.
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Very true, it doesn’t seem like real money to them because it wasn’t their’s and they thought it would never run out.
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How can it run out when they just fire up the presses and print some more? Isn’t that what most people think? There are those that do not know what happens when you keep printing more and more money and they do not WANT to know. As long as they are taken care of by the government, they have no worries. I imagine they think it will just continue…what will they say when the *hit hits the fan and all the freebies stop? Will they have that deer in the headlights look? Most likely.
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I still can’t get jazzed over less than a million Obama bucks thrown away for clowns and hot tubs while the serial vacationer Michelle spends more than that on jet fuel. I reread the Constitution last night and found no language that says the taxpayer must pay for the presidential family excesses. Of course the GSA caper will provide the vehicle for Ospender to showcase his concern and disdain, to both his base and independents, for government waste.
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I would like to do an analogy of what I think is going on. I am not sure, but will assume that no one here is a landlord for the moment. To make the comparison I will start with the landlord (we the people) and the renter (the government). We expect certain things from our renters, such as RENT and to abide by rules we have set up.They in turn can expect that we will put them into a house for a certain length of time and we will hold up our end of the lease and support them while they live there for the term of their lease. If and when the lease is violated, we have the right to evict them after giving notice to them. Sometimes you get good renters and sometimes you get bad renters, we try to screen (vett) them to the best of our ability, but still fail ever so often. You try to learn from those mistakes and not to repeat them again, it cost money each time that happens. Now, WHY after me saying that and applying it to the government, do we put people in and have them think we do not have the right to question them? Why do they feel that once in there, they can do and say whatever they want? I am not talking about a specific party here, both sides are guilty. If I can do this as a landlord, why can’t we the people do this with the elected officials? I hope I got my point across, it can’t be that hard to take hold of what they are doing and yank back on them, can it?
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I think the analogy works and somehow we have it backwards now. These people work for us and they answer to us yet they feel we are the ones who owe them something.
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