Stimulus Waste Prevention Committee to Meet at the Ritz Carlton

Helen Whalen Cohen | November 12, 2010 10:52 AM

It would be funny if it weren't so sad.

Reports Byron York:

Members of a key panel created by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus bill, have scheduled a meeting on November 22 to consider ways to prevent "fraud, waste, and abuse of Recovery Act funds." The meeting will be held at the super-luxe Ritz Carlton Hotel in Phoenix, Arizona.

The group is the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, a sub-committee of the larger Recovery Accountability and Transparency board (sometimes known as the RAT board). The stimulus bill set up the Recovery Independent Advisory Panel, or RIAP, to make recommendations to identify and prevent waste of the bill's $814 billion in stimulus spending.

So a committee forms a subcommittee which then holds meetings at the Ritz Carlton to discuss ways to prevent waste? Talk about austerity!

I can think of a way to cut waste right now: stop spending money on useless stuff. Like signs advertising how well the stimulus is working, meetings at the Ritz, or maybe even committees whose purpose is to recommend cutting spending. It's ironic that these bureaucrats need to hire people to hire people to say that there is waste in government. Just sayin'.