Photo by ellievanhoutte.

By now, you’ve no doubt heard about the national political story of the day, a new report produced by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General which details outlandish spending on conferences hosted by the Department — including $32 snack boxes, $16 muffins, $10 cookies, $8.24 cups of coffee, $5 Swedish meatballs, and more. The report concluded that the department “did not adequately attempt to minimize conference costs as required by federal and DOJ guidelines,” which, well, duh. Of course, anyone who has ever worked on organizing an event paid for by the federal government will tell you that paying high prices is basically part and parcel of the arrangement — much like hotel room service, vendors know that since the government is paying, they’ll gladly charge whatever the market will bear.