Your Tax Dollars at Work: IRS Travel Edition

Here are some of the figures for the "travel" days for the executives in 2011 and the associated expenses:

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that some of these folks are actually commuting to work in the nation's capital, and charging us for it.

Jamie Dupree of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, who broke the story, notes that the report on executive travel found "no evidence of wrongdoing."  Au contraire - I would argue that, although nothing in the report itself alleges illegality or any breach of IRS regulations, that fact is a scandal in itself.  Like so much in DC, the outrage here isn't what's illegal, it's what's permitted.

Were these people so uniquely valuable to the agency that we needed to subsidize these travel costs in order to have the benefit of their services? Were there special situations that legitimately prevented them from relocating to the place where they work? Or were federal government employees once again providing an example of the Beltway's reflexive contempt for the taxpayers who subsidize their oh-so-privileged lifestyles?