Ben Carson spends $31K w/ tax payer money for dining table in his private office....

[Joe]

165 thousand on "lounge furniture" besides the 31 thousand on the table

 

[Fawlty]

I asked you about this:

"Then the trans rights over the rights of others."

And you gave me "democrats support equal rights for transgender people"

Lol. Get the fuck out of here.

If your identity hurts my feelings, that means your rights come at my expense.

 

[KONG-D'SNT-TAP]

Report states:

“Carson walked into the table 31,000 times because his eyes are always closed.”


Interesting stuff

 

[kuromusha]

That better be made of the wood from Jesus' cross.

 

[HIMBOB]

I read their platform and saw the direction they wanted to go in.

Judge the man not the platform.

A man without integrity will happily promise you the world for a nickel.

 

[Fluffernutter]

Is this one of those times when the financial office send out the email that states:

"You still have $31,000 in your budget. If you don't spend it by September 30th, your budget will be cut for the next fiscal year. Therefore, I suggest to keep your budget active, you look to see if your office needs a new photo copy machine, dining set, or fax machine."

 

[bufetadanacara]

Department of Housing and Urban Development officials spent $31,000 on a new dining room set for Secretary Ben Carson’s office in late 2017 — just as the White House circulated its plans to slash HUD’s programs for the homeless, elderly and poor, according to federal procurement records.

The purchase of the custom hardwood table, chairs and hutch came a month after a top agency staff member filed a whistle-blower complaint charging Mr. Carson’s wife, Candy Carson, with pressuring department officials to find money for the expensive redecoration of his offices, even if it meant circumventing the law.

Mr. Carson is also facing questions on another front. Under pressure earlier this month, he requested that HUD’s inspector general investigate his son’s involvement in a department-sponsored listening tour of Baltimore last summer. Department lawyers had warned Mr. Carson that including Ben Carson Jr., an entrepreneur who does business with the federal government, could create a conflict of interest.

Mr. Carson “didn’t know the table had been purchased,” but does not believe the cost was too steep and does not intend to return it, said Raffi Williams, a HUD spokesman.

“In general, the secretary does want to be as fiscally prudent as possible with the taxpayers’ money,” he added.
...
Department officials did not request approval from the House or Senate Appropriations Committees for the expenditure of $31,561, even though federal law requires congressional approval “to furnish or redecorate the office of a department head” if the cost exceeds $5,000.

Mr. Williams said department officials did not request congressional approval because the dining set served a “building-wide need.” The table is inside the secretary’s 10th-floor office suite.
...
About a month before it was ordered, Helen G. Foster, a former top HUD official, filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, a federal whistle-blower agency, claiming that she had been demoted and transferred after resisting Mrs. Carson’s attempts to get around the $5,000 redecoration law.

The pressure began in January 2017, before Mr. Carson was even confirmed, when HUD’s interim secretary, Craig Clemmensen, told Mrs. Foster to help secure redecorating funds for Mrs. Carson, a frequent visitor to the department’s Washington headquarters who serves as an informal adviser to her husband, the complaint said.

Mr. Clemmensen, acting on Mrs. Carson’s behalf, told Mrs. Foster to “find money” to purchase better furniture for the office — and he quipped that “$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair,” according to the complaint, which was reported by The Guardian newspaper.

​

Drain.
That.
Swamp.

He should be hanged for treason.

When any government official frivolously spends taxpayer money like this, it should be taken very, very seriously.

Any deliberate malfeasance like this should be among the most heavily punished crimes.

 

[ShoelessRye]

How is it possible for a purchase like this be approved? It is insane to me that politicians get away with stuff like this while so many important programs are nickel and dimed to death.

It's because they think 30K is nothing when they have budgets overseeking billions. So they cut millions to the poors and spend $30K on themselves nobody should complain.

 

[ShoelessRye]

165 thousand on "lounge furniture" besides the 31 thousand on the table

This guy will quit if Democrats take the House in November and there is real oversight. Imagine this guy in front of a committee and having to defend this spending. Right now he doesn't give a shit because there is zero accountability in DC. Pruitt and Zinke will probably quit as well rather than face any real accountability. The cabinet sees Trump's level of spending and corruption and thus believe they're untouchable.

 

[oldshadow]

So to be clear, your objection on immigration is to this?:



And your objection to guns is this:



And that justifies the damage to the nation done by putting a guy like Trump in the WH.

Yes this along with her statements which you can find at on the issues

 

[oldshadow]

I asked you about this:

"Then the trans rights over the rights of others."

And you gave me "democrats support equal rights for transgender people"

Lol. Get the fuck out of here.

Yea when they cut off money and force schools to allow boys in the girls bathroom and locker room

 

[oldshadow]

ahoy oldshadow,

the GOP in congress could have blocked Mrs. Clinton, indefinitely.

- IGIT

Maybe and at best there would have been gridlock.

 

[oldshadow]

Judge the man not the platform.

A man without integrity will happily promise you the world for a nickel.

With Hillary we had the platform and her words and actions.

 

[phipps66]

Maybe and at best there would have been gridlock.

Noooo gridlock is what happened with Merrick Garland's nomination. Or maybe that was obstructionism.

 

[FinalFight]

You could renovate a 3 bedroom house for $30k.

 

[drstrangelov]

I don't have a problem with it at all. If the offices are outdated and need to be refinished every couple decades, that's part of the cost of government. These scandals pop up from time to time, but nobody's citing a comparison figure for how Much they think and executive branch dining area should cost. Instead of comparison shopping at IKEA, comparison shop against any other western nation's executive branch and see if these costs still seem too high.

 

[44nutman]

I don't have a problem with it at all. If the offices are outdated and need to be refinished every couple decades, that's part of the cost of government. These scandals pop up from time to time, but nobody's citing a comparison figure for how Much they think and executive branch dining area should cost. Instead of comparison shopping at IKEA, comparison shop against any other western nation's executive branch and see if these costs still seem too high.

You might want to read the story again.
He was told no, said fuck it and bought the table anyway. So basically Ben Carson is above the law. That is the biggest problem.
The fact we added 1 trillion to the deficit in the last 6 months and have Secretaries who think the don't need to follow rules is the problem with this table.

 

[drstrangelov]

You might want to read the story again.
He was told no, said fuck it and bought the table anyway. So basically Ben Carson is above the law. That is the biggest problem.
The fact we added 1 trillion to the deficit in the last 6 months and have Secretaries who think the don't need to follow rules is the problem with this table.

Yeah, I don't care about any of that. If some junior staffer at my company tried to tell me I can't fix a 50 year old office that's used for company meetings with important partners and clients, im telling her to fuck off too. It appears as if she was attempting to apply the rule too broadly anyway.

I didn't care about the deficit during the Obama administration, I'm not gonna turn into a hawk now that the other guy's are in power. And, I'm certainly not gonna get up in arms over circumventing some arbitrarily enforced rule against the wishes of a career bureaucrat.

 

[Big Nasty Edison]

I understand the democratic platform and what would have happened if they controlled the government and it started with social issues and moved on from there.

If Hillary had won and the democrats controlled Congress shit would have gone alt left.

Yeah liberal policies like letting townspeople pee in the bathroom they want to and not letting coal plants pollute rivers would surely be the end of America.

 

[ultramanhyata]

When you stack your cabinet with billionaires and mult-millionaires you have to expect that they're not going to put in a day's work unless it's in the style to which they're accustomed.