Some guys WANTED to spend $50k on furniture. Did they? If they did, tell me what you know about the fate of the furniture they had. I can tell you what happened to it if they did indeed by new furniture. Can you?
A couple of things, first if you need the hammer to tell you and for other posters, what Scout was implying, it was sold via DRMO. They did not throw it in a dumpster or give it to Goodwill. They actually recuperate some of the money via DRMO. The same is true for when they renovate dorms, TLFs, and basically anything that has out lasted the military life that they determine.
Also, at my dad's work (he works on base) His unit had around $50,000 left near the end of the fiscal year. So, in order to not get their budgets cut for the next FY, his guys wanted to use it to replace the furniture in the shop that was less than two years old
I am not going to deny it, this crap happens, HOWEVER, every commander is given a discretionary budget. This money was not tagged for operational purposes, it was tagged for discretionary things. I have seen it been abuse by commanders like you have mentioned, because to them they want the squadron to be their "show piece". I have seen it been used because "they had to" since what was placed there had issues, like not being to code for federal reasons, i.e. health and safety.
As a spouse who has been in many, many, many squadrons and furnished multiple homes, I am sorry I don't bite off on 50K in furniture. Do you know how much crap you'd have to buy to tally 50K...in essence, it would be not only be furniture, but flooring, wall art, trash cans, or in other words every single piece in the squadron would be replaced from top to bottom. I think that 50K is akin to you should have seen the size of the fish I hooked! It just keeps getting bigger and bigger everytime it is told.
Oh, and should I mention all the money spent flying Air Force One around to all of the presidents' vacation spots
I do agree that flying the President and First Lady to NYC for a night out on the town was over the top when people in the country are hurting fiscally, BUT like Scout stated did you expect them to fly Southwest?
OBTW, Barbara Bush, had your same opinion, and wanted to fly commercial, because in her mind, she was not the President. SS changed that view by showing her that her way would be more expensive due to security reasons than using the AF. She relented and flew AF to save tax payer dollars. Presidential families are targets. She is IMHO a neat lady...afterall she wears fake pearls, and non-matching Ked sneakers. Her Keds don't match because as First Lady people sent her so many prs as gifts, that to honor their gift she mis-matched them so she can wear at least one from the people who sent them. Ask your Mom, I bet she can tell you in the 90's 3 strand fake pearls and Keds were the rage in fashion.
NO President is ever on vacation like us peons. Even during their vacations they are still working. It only makes news because they are followed by he media.
Think about the cost it would be to taxpayers if they flew commercially, it would be much more than flying AF1 from a security standpoint. That is why AF1 exists.
Now, if you want to talk about waste of tax dollars...during the Carter administration, when he told Americans to wear sweaters to stay warm because of the energy crisis, his DD was swimming in a heated indoor pool at Camp David.