Representative Darrell Issa and the House Oversight Committee has been investigating wasteful spending by the Veteran Affairs office. In July and August of 2011, the VA held week-long conferences at the Marriott World Center in Orlando. The “Human Resources Conference 2011: Innovative Solutions for Strategic Workforce” cost taxpayers around $5 million. According to Representative Issa, “from that budget, $52,000 was allegedly spent to produce an 18-minute video starring a paid actor satirizing the opening scene from the movie Patton. Although the VA has videographers and editors on staff, the conference planners engaged a contractor to produce the video. An additional $84,000 was spent on promotional items such as branded pens, highlighters, hand sanitizers, and USB drives.”

Here is the $52,000 video. I would love to know where that money went, because it definitely wasn’t spent on finding a decent actor or improving the production value:

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