Discussion: NYT: Carson Considered Leaving HUD Over Department Budget Negotiations

1 Like

Better to sleep at home than in your office, Ben.
And you should resign after that really abusively expensive office redecoration debacle.

7 Likes

I’m a bit stunned to see a Trump appointee, and a fairly loopy one at that, fighting to try to prevent the administration from destroying the agency he was sent to sabotage.

16 Likes

“You take away my $5000 chair and I quit!”

7 Likes

“Considered leaving?” My suggestion to Carson: Reconsider your leaving. Reconsider your ethics.

4 Likes

It’s a typo. He managed to restore $2 billion to the budget.

12 Likes

Shorter Carson: Why cant I have gold toilets and bill it to the fiscally irresponsible government?

3 Likes

Still not enough, but at least meaningful. And those calling for him to resign: think about who would get appointed (eventually) in his place. How many jobs can mulvaney hold?

4 Likes

Folks, it’s probably time to stop focusing on some overpriced office furniture. I worked in the Snivel Service, and I can almost write the script that this followed. Boss says, “Geez, this furniture is getting pretty tatty. Can we get something a little better?” Underlings scurry off to make the boss happy, gleefully tell him that they’ve got nice, new, shiny stuff on the way, and that’s it’s covered in their general furniture budget. Boss never even asks what the price tag is. And in an agency with a $41 billion budget, $30K really is de minimis. It’s too much, but it’s not a firing offense.

8 Likes

“There are more complexities here than in brain surgery,” Carson told the New York Times about his position leading HUD. “Doing this job is going to be a very intricate process.”

He really went there…Well, here’s an answer for that perplexity you’re facing, Doctor Carson: What the fuck did you expect? You thought the country was being run by a bunch of dim-witted amateurs, so you all would be able to waltz right in and set things straight? If it’s such a burden here’s another tip: Resign, and you can nap all you want, and you won’t be troubled by the intricacies of actually making something work.

8 Likes

What, so Trump can appoint Alaric?

Carson may be in over his head, but he actually seems to be making a good faith effort to come to grips with the job. That’s more than can be said for most of Trump’s staffing choices.

4 Likes

I see your point, but disagree. I feel it’s important to call out ineptitude and ethics issues wherever they are found. Carson won’t resign over something like this, because he’s a grifter, too. Remember that his presidential campaign was a book promo tour.

2 Likes

Using that logic trump could seriously redecorate the White House. Or I could have had a far better and more tasteful office than I did at the university where I worked. I had an old and very used metal desk and a second hand office chair both scrounged from the university’s “surplus stores” dept. I did get to have my office repainted though. So there was that.
(foregoing meant as a sort of snark)

1 Like

Don’t give him any ideas. I’m sure he’s already thought about it. Not nearly enough faux gold leaf and marble in that old dump.

3 Likes

Yup
Forest meet trees

4 Likes

Including putting his son in a position to benefit from his father’s role in the administration ??

5 Likes

I worked for an agency that, in later years, once spent $250k for a friggin’ awards ceremony for its employees. Someone described it as looking like “Aida, without the elephants.”

2 Likes

Shucks, I think my parents misspent $30K with every car they bought since about 1985. There are worse things going on in Washington right now.

For that, you get to demand his resignation. But you still need to think about who Trump would appoint in his stead.

But letting his overenthusiastic staff blow 0.000076% of the budget on some furniture shouldn’t trigger the “hang 'im” level of outrage. Carson wasn’t selling the furniture to HUD, he wasn’t going to have it delivered to his home, and I doubt that he was going to fly it to a government-funded vacation in the south of France.

3 Likes

Just can’t stand not having that table