No one would actually think that muffins would lead people to question what the government is really doing with our money. According to this article, this seems to be the case. On Tuesday, September 20, it was revealed that the Justice Department has been spending a ridiculous amount of money on catering its conferences in the past few years. From $5 meatballs to $8 coffees, it is apparent that the department isn't stingy when it comes to shelling out money on themselves. The real controversy was surrounding these $16 muffins. When journalists and auditors visited a hotel conference, they discovered a display of 250 muffins that were there to serve those attending the conference. Much to their surprise, they weren't just any ordinary muffins, these muffins cost a whopping $16 each.
My view:
Anyone in their right mind would realize that $16 for a muffin is a bit too extravagant. The reason why many people were outraged when they saw this was because this gave them a bit of an insight to how the government is really spending our money. Despite the fact that our country is $15 trillion in debt, we're now spending lots of money on petty items such as muffins. Even Senator Chuck Grassley said that whoever allowed this to happen should be fired. As I was reading, the story lead to a surprising twist. Apparently the muffins didn't really cost $16. The price of the muffins was based on an invoice price of the muffins, which included overhead and service charges for the use of the conference space. If you click on the link below, there's an updated story attached to the article which explains what really happened with these $16 muffins. As a citizen, hearing about officials spending more money rather than saving money really infuriates me. If they are spending that much money on things such as muffins, it worries me that our hard earned money could be spent on other pointless things as well.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/22/16-muffins-justice-department_n_976237.html
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