What a paradox it is that the very market for whom I predominantly serve, the federal government, is also the same body who inanely does all it can to hurt the industry for which I work. Certainly it’s not the very same people, and the people who do the hurting may very well be doing it unwittingly, but nonetheless, they ought to be reprimanded and condemned for their self-defeating actions. When speaking of Muffingate, or the Case of the $16 Muffin, I specifically refer to a well documented case where the Office of the Inspector General, believed they had caught the US Department of Justice, unwisely wasting government funds on elaborate and spendy conference details. Had they done their due diligence, which I implore them to do as a tax payer and their funder, they might have looked more closely to find that the $16 Muffin was actually a $16 All-Day Break package which put them under the federal per diem by which they were constrained. Not only would they have found them in total compliance, but they might have commended them for the extra value they were able to glean for their attendees. And as a taxpayer, and their funder, I would have been proud. Instead, I’m doubly proud of the US Department of Justice for their being keenly thrifty, and I’d ask for the resignation of the careless OIG employees who so wrongly denounced this conference and who have likely made it exponentially harder for the struggling hospitality industry to profit and to keep regular people employed. Shame!
