After watching the great $50,000 taxpayer funded video of IRS employees line dancing, or the Star Trek training video, it reminded me that IRS is only one of many Federal agencies.   Is there any doubt that training videos and teambuilding retreat expenses are spent over and over and over again, from one end of the Government to the other.  Yet, rather than cut out these types of perks and costs, the Government instead chooses to sequester the pay of their employees.  Let’s assume that inside the IRS there are probably $500,000 year spent on employee training retreats and videos.  Now add the rest of the Treasury Department, Transportation, Agriculture, Defense, etc., you get some huge amounts of money going out the door.  Yes, people need to be trained how to do their jobs.  But what about meetings at local offices.  Supervisors training their underlings.  And of course skype conferences if you have to have someone from somewhere else.  Government needs to cut costs as the private sector has had to do.  It can do it by reducing everyone’s pay or laying people off, or looking for other cuts that can handle these cost reductions.

I have no doubt that these expenses were meant to be helpful to teaching employees.  But, we have to really evaluate the necessity of going overboard with expenditures which border on wasteful.   Perhaps if a few more Mr. Spocks were hauled before Congress, they might begin to understand that the day of being faceless bureaucrats is over, and in the day of cellphone videos, people are being caught on tape every day.  I talked to a fellow today who uses his cellphone to take pictures of people who litter and sends those to police.   Now add that his cellphone is hooked to the NSA and is it long before Big Brother is really watching.  Fehrenheit 951 and 1984 are right around the corner.