White House spending
Letter to the editor:
Congress allotted $20,000 for renovations to the White House during Lincoln’s presidency. Mary Lincoln overspent that budget by about $6,800. She secretly worked with the Commissioner of Public Buildings to get another $4,500 from Congress, hoping that her husband would not find out about her extravagances.
Old Abe did find out and he scolded his wife for wasting the people’s money on what he termed “flubdubs,” while the war was being waged.
During the Obama Administration, $376 million was spent on renovations to the White House. Congress had approved those funds while George W. Bush was still in office. That amount was deemed necessary to fix outdated electrical and plumbing, HVAC, fire alarms and security systems in the aging building.
Now, without the needed approval of Congress, Donald Trump has demolished the East Wing of the White House to build a grand ballroom in its place. The initial cost of the 9,999-square-foot ballroom was to be $200 million. Trump thought that by keeping the ballroom under 10,000 square feet it would not be looked as though it was in the extravagant category. Two short months later, its expected cost has already risen to $400 million taxpayer dollars.
Congress has stopped the project, for now, but the East Wing has already been obliterated.
You would have thought that Trump would have been just as satisfied with a new coat of paint, but knowing Donald, as we do, he would have wanted to change the color to gold, to match the inside.
Today we don’t call wasteful government renovations “flubdubs.” The proper name now is boondoggle!