COLUMN: Obama's no comment on GSA scandal exposes problem
French playwright Molière once said, “It is the public scandal that offends; to sin in secret is no sin at all,” and the recent lavish spending scandal at the General Services Administration (GSA) has proven this to be true.
In recent weeks, it has been discovered that the GSA has been misusing taxpayer money to take lavish trips to conferences and “training sessions.” It was discovered that the administration held an expensive conference in Las Vegas, all at the taxpayers’ expense, and on top of that, several GSA employees recently made a video bragging about how much excessive spending the GSA engages in. The fact that the GSA is responsible for developing cost-minimizing governmental policies has only made this scandal worse.
The former head of the GSA, Martha Johnson, resigned after news of the scandal broke, and rightfully so. Since then, various members of the administration have been called to testify to Congressional committees at the request of both Republicans and Democrats.
So far, President Barack Obama has remained silent on the issue, which is a major blunder on his part.
The president should not be blamed for this scandal. There is no proof he had any knowledge of the mismanagement of funds going to conferences and other “training” trips. That being said, it is hard to comprehend why he would not come out and condemn the actions that were taken by the GSA.
Nobody in their right mind would defend excessive government spending, especially from an agency tasked with reducing government costs, so what did Obama have to lose? Sure, he may have lost the votes of a dozen GSA employees, but he would have gained respect from the American people for actively standing up against government waste.
But this is not merely an “Obama problem;” government waste has been occurring for decades, under both Democratic and Republican administrations, and both parties should strongly condemn it whenever it occurs.
If politicians continue to play the political blame game of, “Our opponents are wasting your tax money,” without addressing waste in their own administration, we will never solve the problem.
Now is the time to stop the waste. Republicans can benefit politically from this scandal by holding the GSA accountable, and they have done so. Democrats can do the same, and many Congressional members are doing so, but the president is not.
However, instead of focusing on the potential political gain, our leaders should be turning this into taxpayer gain. The scandal should be exposed, but not for political gain; it should be exposed for the good of the country.
If the president refuses to meet Republicans on this issue, it will be an immense mistake on his part. For the good of the country, it is time for President Obama to actively oppose such wasteful spending. While Obama may not have been aware of the wasteful spending, by not addressing the issue, he is making himself and his entire administration accountable for it.
