Michael J. Kazin Michael J. Kazin 7e2a2bec3feb298cf4ec4b15e0884354bb94ab06 Kevin R. Schmidt e4ad0654f93121d87424b6e3bce45cc9234b9e38 Purple over Orange: Federal IT Budget and POTUS' whopping phone bill

Friday, May 22, 2009

Federal IT Budget and POTUS' whopping phone bill

I was looking up budget information related to a government project I'm working on when I came across the VUE-IT, which lets you take a look into federal government's IT budget.

The master spreadsheet is quite shocking, both in the amount of money spent overall, and the sheer number of items on which they are spent.  The Department of Defense (DoD) has just over 2300 line items, each of which can includes something as big as DISN (the DoD's communications network) or CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team, which helps keep computers safe).

One item I was really floored by is "007-97-06-12-02-4017-00" (Google that, you'll get the spreadsheet).  The figure is well over $150M and it's the budget for the White House Communications Agency.  I know the president talks a lot and needs to get great reception even while traveling, but spending $4.75 a second 24/365?  Using a satellite phone is far cheaper than that, and POTUS owns his own satellites!  Someone needs to read the fine print, realize they got screwed and switch to a different carrier.  I mean, come on- how bad could the termination fees possibly be?

Can you imagine your monthly phone bill being above ten million dollars?  I think if the US president is going to keep talking, texting and surfing at this rate, his chief of staff  should consider upgrading to an unlimited plan.  And for heaven's sake please go easy on those 1-900 calls.  Remember the words of William Jefferson Clinton "when you're the president, you don't have to pay for it."




PS- yes, this was written in a very silly way because that's the style you get from my current mood.  I am however quite interested in someone taking a serious look at this specific budget item because as hard as I try I can't justify it.  I assume that all White House comms are included, but most of that is land-based and running even a large PBX won't set you back that far.  I assume the significant 24/365 communications of the good folks at Treasury are not included in this figure.  I suspect that AF1 comms are similarly handled by the 89th Airlift.  This leaves me with international calling and a whole lot of encrypted domestic cellular traffic.  It just doesn't add up to me.

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