Bulls and Bears: Federal Government Spends $4.6M on Crab and Lobster Tails in a Month Video_-_Fox_Business_Federal_Government_Spends_$4.6M_on_Crab_and_Lobster_Tails_in_a_Month

March 13, 2019 08:30 AM
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By: Harry Fernandez
 
The federal goverment has an apparent taste for pricey shellfish, chowing down on $4.6 million worth of lobster tail and crab in the final month of the fiscal year 2018, according to OpenTheBooks.com Opens a New Window. .
 
The use-it-or-lose-it spending spree last year racked up $97 billion of U.S. tax payer money on 509,828 contracts, an increase of more than 16 percent compared to the prior year.
 
"We looked at the year, it was $22 million spent by the Pentagon on lobster tail alone, over the course of the past four years on lobster tail alone it was nearly $55 million," Openthebooks.com CEO Adam Andrzejewski told FOX Business’ David Asman Opens a New Window. .
 
Some of the additional wasteful government spending Opens a New Window.  ran the gamut, here's a look...
  • Workout and Recreation Equipment: $9.8 million
  • iPhones and iPads: $7.7 million
  • Musical Equipment: $1.7 million
  • Golf Carts: $673,471
  • Booz: $308,994
  • China Tableware: $53,004   
  • Wexford Leather Club Chair: $9,241
Federal agencies scrambled to use what is left in their annual budget by September 2018 to ensure that Congress Opens a New Window.  doesn’t appropriate less money in the next year.
 
"More than half of [the spending] was in the last week," Andrzejewski said on "Bulls & Bears Opens a New Window. ." "Incredibly, one out of every ten contracts procured during the entire year was spent in the last week."
 
The spending spree totaled $53 billion in the final week of fiscal year 2018.
 
Openthebooks.com found the Department of Defense ($61.2 billion), the Department of Health and Human Services ($5.7 billion), the Department of Veterans Affairs ($5.4 billion), the Department of Homeland Security ($4.2 billion), and the Department of State ($4.0 billion) were among the top five agencies that paid 85.6 percent of all the contracts.
 
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