Romney says GSA conference shows ‘administration’s spending hypocrisy’

{mosads}Romney is the latest in a string of Republicans looking to pin the scandal — which recently forced the resignation of GSA head Martha Johnson — to the Obama administration.

The White House maintains that the president was “outraged” to learn about the excessive spending, and acted swiftly to remove those responsible.

“[President Obama] was outraged by the excessive spending, questionable dealings with contractors and disregard for taxpayer dollars,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney earlier this week. “He called for all those responsible to be held fully accountable, given that these actions were irresponsible and entirely inconsistent with the expectations that he has set as President.”

But Republicans say the conference is emblematic of government waste, and see political opportunity in tying the president to some of the more cartoonish expenditures.

“It takes a lot of work to spend $3,000 a person and at a time when unemployment was nearly 10 percent, Americans were suffering and GSA was enjoying the good times and doing so with high-ranking political employees,” said House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), in a statement Thursday. “This administration knew about this 11 months ago and they didn’t act until the press got wind of it. This is typically what has been happening in this administration. They are only transparent when they are discovered.”

The White House has maintained they acted quickly once informed of the issue.

“This Administration has taken historic steps to protect taxpayer dollars and eliminate waste across the federal government. When the White House was informed of the Inspector General’s findings we acted quickly to determine who was responsible for such a gross misuse of taxpayer dollars,” said White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew.

Already, committees in both the House and Senate have called for an investigation into the conference.

The GSA issued a statement earlier in the week saying it had implemented new controls to make sure that type of spending would not be repeated.

“GSA will review potential further disciplinary action where warranted, implement reforms to its accounting procedures, and increase the contracting and conference oversight protocols. The General Services Administration has made eliminating excessive spending and promoting efficiency one of its top priorities and is taking steps to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again,” said GSA spokesman Greg Mecher.