Bruce Reed said that he and a few staffers are collecting a salary. So one would assume that the other seventeen members and some of their staffers will also collect some type of salary. For illustration purposes though, let's just say that the eighteen members of the commission receive a small salary that might equal $500 per weekly session. The commission plans on meeting each week (in person) until their report is due in December, that is approximately 32 weeks. So, again with no intimate knowledge of the exact amount of the salaries, the salary portion of the budget is potentially $280,000 not including any staffers.
Mr. Reed, the executive director of the commission, has also said that the commission will enlist several unpaid staffers as well. Well I certainly hope that they don't ask those unpaid staffers to do any clerical work because that would be in violation of regulations regarding internships wouldn't it and interns of course don't ever do something that someone else could be paid for huh?
Now let's look a the travel and lodging budget. The average priced coach class flight from Raleigh to Washington DC (where I would guess that Erskine Bowles would fly in and out of unless of course he had to travel from elsewhere due to scheduling) is $149 and the average priced coach class flight from Wyoming to DC is $601 (although Alan Simpson has already stated that he prefers to fly first class and take the loss on the difference in price). So allowing for the fact that there is probably a flat fee for each flight instead of a separate amount for each of the eighteen member panel which although the right way to do I doubt that the government works that efficiently, that would put the airfare budget around $288,000. Again for the purposes of this example, let's say that each staffer would stay over in DC one night for each meeting and the average DC hotel is $200 per night. That would mean that the housing budget would be approximately $115,200.
Of course, we don't want anyone to be hungry so I would have to believe that there is also a per diem for food. Let's use a round figure of $100 per meeting, which would add another $57,000 for just the eighteen members of the commission (no staffers).
So even though the commission is meeting in the White House (at least the first time) which alleviates the need for an outside facility rental fee, there is probably at least lunch brought in. One would figure that even if provided by the White House kitchens, the cost is probably at least $20 per person which adds an additional $11,520 to the overall budget. Lest we forget paper and pens, we should add into the budget the cost of at least one legal pad, one ream of copy paper, two pens and two highlighters per panel member per session. That would add another $2384.46 unless of course they don't shop at Staples and instead go to that government warehouse where the toilet seats cost over a thousand dollars.
So without factoring in any money for any staffers that the executive director has already said would be paid, the budget for the above expenses is already$754,104.46. Does this surprise anyone? Are my estimates really out of control?? So once again the people who are tasked with finding a way to get us out of debt are apparently incapable of providing a realistic budget to work within themselves.
Why is it that the Administration continues to think that the American public is too stupid to see the writing on the wall and to do simple math? Why can't these meetings be held over video chat? That idea was squashed according to the Daily Caller's report. I would think that since the Obama Administration thinks that all Americans have a right to broadband Internet then they must have heard of something called video conferencing? Skype is free - use it and some common sense and maybe, just maybe, we'll have a chance!
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