Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Via The Corner, here is Austin Hill working up some righteous populist outrage at Townhall.com:

Last week the Social Security Administration flew approximately 700 of its managers from across the U.S. and Guam to Phoenix, Arizona’s posh Arizona Biltmore Hotel and Resort, for “organizational training.” The event, which included musical entertainment and dancing, skits, catered food, cocktails, and a “casino night” featuring “door prizes,” cost us lowly taxpayers approximately $750,000.

Seriously?  SSA managed to put together a three-day corporate training session for $1,071 per person?  That’s…..unbelievable.

Seriously.  That’s unbelievable.  SSA must have some world class penny-pinching accountants and event planners on their staff.  I doubt there’s a corporation in America that would even try to budget less than two grand a head for something like this.

And why did SSA hold their training session at the “posh” Arizona Biltmore?  Let me take a guess: because it’s 120 degrees in the shade in Phoenix during July.  The heat hits you like an anvil and the Biltmore practically gives rooms away for free in order to keep the place from turning into a ghost town.  SSA probably paid less than they would have at a Holiday Inn in Schaumburg.

(Yep.  $85 per night it says here. That’s really cheap for a hotel with convention facilities for 700 people.)

Apparently this has been the outrage du jour among conservatives for the past few days.  Sad.  If they knew anything about how the real world works they’d be applauding, not catcalling.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate