At one time, the State Department was known for using diplomacy as its main tool in negotiations with friendly and not so friendly nations. Whether the Secretary of State was good at negotiations or not, they still relied on their knowledge and skills to accomplish trade and arms agreements, treaties and end wars.
Since Barack Obama became president, America has lost much of its credibility, making it much harder to negotiate with foreign leaders, dignitaries and ambassadors. Hillary Clinton had to resort to making a Muslim woman with direct family ties to Islamic extremists, her closest advisor and confidant in hopes of being able to make inroads with Islamic controlled countries like Egypt.
It also appears that Clinton began turning to alcohol as another negotiation tool. Beginning in 2009, the State Department’s purchase of booze began to increase. Each year under Clinton’s regime, they spent more and more on alcohol.
Following in his predecessor’s footsteps, current Secretary of State John Kerry picked up the booze buying ball and has been running hard with it. In the fiscal year ending on Sept 30, the State department spent three times as much for bottled libations as it did in 2008, the last year in which a Republican was President and Secretary of State (Condoleezza Rice who I still want to run for president in 2016).
But don’t let me besmirch Kerry’s reputation as being an honorable and concerned politician. In September, many government agencies were battening down their fiscal hatches in preparation for the government shutdown that occurred on Oct. 1. That is many except the State Department and John Kerry.
Just in the month of September, the State Department spent $180,000 on alcohol purchases, just prior to the shutdown, which was more than the entire year’s purchase of only $118,000 in 2008 under Rice. The final year’s total for the fiscal year that just ended was $415,000 worth of bottled inebriation, all of which is supposedly used for official State Department functions.
To list some of the purchases:
- The US Embassy in Rio de Janeiro purchased $5,625 worth of gratuity wine and $5,925 work of gratuity whiskey in the two days prior to the shutdown.
- The US Embassy in Tokyo, where Caroline Kennedy is heading as the new ambassador, spent $22,416 on wine just prior to the shutdown.
- The US Embassy in Moscow spent $15,900 on bourbon and whiskey just prior to the shutdown. Guess they were already stocked up on vodka.
The State Department has long served alcoholic beverages at official dinners and functions when appropriate, but to more than triple the amount served in 4 years seems excessive and makes one wonder if they are turning to booze to get agreements and treaties signed.
The drastic increase in spending on alcohol, especially the excessive amount just prior to the government shutdown demonstrates the irresponsibility of the Democrats in control. My view seems to be shared by Dave Williams, President of Taxpayers Protection Alliance, a non-profit watchdog group. Williams commented on the booze binge spending saying:
“This is what taxpayers don’t understand. You have a looming government shutdown but then you have a ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ mentality where someone is spending tens of thousands of dollars because they have to.”
“If you’re a family or a business and you’re getting ready for a potential loss of revenue, the first thing you do is get rid of the parties. It’s symbolic.”
But not Democrats! Their motto has long been ‘spend, spend, spend and then spend some more!’ And the end result is a $17 trillion national debt that we can never repay. Don’t forget, that Obama is responsible for $7 trillion of that debt, more than any 10 presidents combined.
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