What does the $16 muffin really mean?

By Steve Kelman
Federal Computer Weekly

Blogger's Note: I agree that government spending is way out of whack, but distorted and slanted  reporting, such as the type that this article rebutts, merely serve to give media types, like Beck and Hannity, ammo for their "shoot first, ask questions later" type rhetoric. Yeah, I agree that $16 a muffin is a waste, but if it included all the things that Hilton said were included, then it was a good bargain - and pretty much in line with what private businesses pay for these events. My own opinion is that the costs here were justified, but to reduce costs in the future they should utilize technolgy and have more teleconferencing. Feds could use a local hotel's conference rooms and still have the "$16 muffins", i.e., location costs, but videoconference the presentations and save the taxpayer the costs of travel and lodging. I think we would be farther ahead by using some common sense on both sides.

I don't agree with everyting Kelman says here, but I think he has a good point. It's worth the read.

      $600 hammer, step aside. The media has been abuzz with the story that the Department of Justice paid $16 apiece for muffins eaten at one department-sponsored conference. The Washington Post story on the costs paid for food service got far more comments on the paper’s website and tweets than President Obama’s speech around the same time to the General Assembly on Israel and Palestine.

     Clearly this story makes great copy. But I have to ask two questions. First, is it true as an individual anecdote? Second, is it helpful to efforts to get the nation’s fiscal house in order?

     On the first question, I will confess I am not a muffin expert. However, I have, over 30 years as a public management professor, frequently examined similar claims about outrageous government waste (and eaten several muffins). These claims turn out to be misleading, incomplete, and downright mistaken.

     About 25 years ago I examined 10 claims about egregious government waste highlighted in the press release of the Reagan-era Grace Commission to illustrate their findings. Not one of the cases was correct as stated. (In one case, the commission misplaced a decimal point, inflating the purported government cost tenfold.) In the case of the $16 muffins, it appears that perhaps the hotels are providing the actual function rooms at no separate charge, and baking (so to speak) the cost of the room into the item charge for the refreshments.

     However, there is a much broader issue than muffins. The fact is that the public has a bizarrely inflated idea of the role these kinds of examples of waste (or alleged waste) play in our fiscal problems. In a survey a number of years ago, the public on average believed that $52 out of every $100 in social security expenditures went to administrative costs. The real figure at the time of the survey was $1.30. (It's probably lower today.) The public is frequently asked what percentage of the federal budget goes to foreign aid. On average, people think it is 25 percent. The real figure is 1 percent.

     This kind of misunderstanding has consequences. With due respect to the dysfunctionality of our political system, a fundamental reason it is so difficult to deal with our long-term fiscal woes is that the American people are not convinced we need either benefit cuts or tax increases to deal with the problem -- they have the illusion we can eliminate the deficit if only we can stop bureaucrats from gorging on $16 muffins. A lot of what the politicians are doing is to respond to that popular delusion.

     So the most damaging myth -- nurtured by the muffin madness -- is that we can solve our fiscal crisis without doing some unpleasant things.

Washington Post, September 22, 2011:
Hilton Worldwide, which manages and franchises hotels including the Capital Hilton where the conference took place, says the price included not only breakfast baked goods but also fresh fruit, coffee, tea, soft drinks, tax and tips. It says the report misinterpreted its invoices, which often use shorthand and don’t reflect the full menu provided.
Nor did it reflect the cost of the training lounge or the breakout rooms.

AND YET ANOTHER MUFFIN UPDATE (Nov 1, 2011):
The Justice Department Inspector General has rescinded its claim about muffins at a conference costing $16 each. After further investigation, the IG has written that "we determined that our initial conclusions concerning the itemized costs of refreshments at the . . . conference were incorrect."

Why is it that, upon further investigation, these initial reports turn out to be blatantly untrue?

Mt. Rushmore from the Rear

George Marlin Quote - Narcissist Nation

"If you look at the extreme left elites, they really don’t have much use for democracy anymore because they’re afraid people will not vote their way. So they bite away at the democratic process by imposing upon us a managerial state where agencies and bureaucracies basically rule things by going around the ballot box."

Bill O'Reilly: Bill's Column - Are You Poor?

By Bill O'Reilly for BillOReilly.com

Sept 15, 2011
Link to Column

The folks are getting hosed. According to the American Debt Advisor outfit, 80% of us now owe money to creditors. If you exclude mortgages and car payments, 50% of us are in debt. And that's why the economy is having so much trouble. Consumers have to be very careful what they buy, or they risk sinking into insolvency.

Some pundits place the blame on unemployment, currently just over 9%. But that's not what is driving debt. Taxation is.

The mean salary in America is just about $50,000. But if you live in Los Angles, Boston, San Francisco, or New York, earning $50k means you're poor. The cost of living in most urban areas is now so high that a $250,000 salary is middle income. President Obama might not understand this, but we the people do.

Let's take the situation in New York State. New Yorkers like me pay federal income tax, state income tax, New York City income tax, and property taxes if we own a home. In fact, per capita, property taxes in the Empire State are about $1,900 a year. Sales taxes, per capita, are another $1,700 per year.

Gasoline tax in New York: 45 cents a gallon. Cell phone tax and fees? 23% added to your monthly bill. There are also tolls, taxes on your driver's license, cigarettes, and alcohol. The hits just keep on coming.

The only relief for New Yorkers is knowing the tax situation is worse in New Jersey.

All over the USA, working folks are bleeding take-home pay. President Obama says he wants to extend the payroll tax cut, and that's fine. But that's a proverbial drop of water into a bottomless well.

Folks just don't have much money to spend. So, how on earth is the economy going to improve? Who's going to buy stuff? With so much money being taken from everyday Americans by their elected representatives in Washington and in the state capitals, there's simply not enough cash being spent in the marketplace to return the nation to economic prosperity.

Recently, I saw a bumper sticker that read, "Taxes buy civilization. Progressive values are American values." Well, balderdash. Taxes are strangling working Americans. They are creating a society not of self-reliance (almost unaffordable), but of dependence on institutions we can't control--banks, credit card companies, government-generated hand-outs. Now the feds have seized control of the health industry. That will mean even more taxation down the road.

President Obama made a bet that his big government vision would create jobs and prosperity. It has not worked; it never works. Ask Cubans and Venezuelans. Americans now find themselves struggling to pay the bills and utterly dependent on who is paying them a salary.

Upward mobility? Please. Most Americans are just trying to survive. This is not what the pursuit of happiness is all about.

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