Scott Pruitt's $25,000 soundproof phone booth? It actually cost more like $43,000.

[DonViejo]

Source: The Washington Post




By Brady Dennis and Juliet Eilperin March 14 at 8:00 AM

Before Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt could install a secure, soundproof phone booth in his office last fall, officials had to create space for the addition in a nearby closet area.

Those preparations didn’t come cheap.

The agency paid a Virginia firm $7,978 to remove closed-circuit television equipment to make room for the booth, according to a federal database. Officials hired another contractor to pour 55 square feet of concrete more than two feet thick, at a cost of $3,470, according to invoices released under a public records request by the watchdog group American Oversight. Other workers installed a drop ceiling for $3,361, while still others patched and painted the small area for $3,350, records show.

In total, the EPA appears to have spent more than $18,000 on the prep work, readying the space for a $25,000 soundproof booth that has brought Pruitt a wave of criticism and official scrutiny. The total cost for the project now appears to be closer to $43,000.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2018/03/14/scott-pruitts-25000-soundproof-phone-booth-it-actually-cost-more-like-43000

[Zoonart]

1. Can anyone explain why this elfin' guy

NEEDS a sound proof booth? He. is a public servant in the EPA...he. is not a super spy... oh wait......

[SkyDaddy7]

3. AWESOME!!

Thanks for posting!

[lagomorph777]

9. Like everybody in the Turd Adminstration, he is working for KAOSS

[Marcuse]

11. Waste, Fraud and Abuse! This less expensive model is just as secure.

;w=630

[lagomorph777]

12. Amazing how technology improved over the course of the series!

[Canoe52]

13. Haha, I remember that episode!

[MBS]

15. That is indeed the main question.

The fact that he even feels that he NEEDS something like this is the biggest obscenity of all.

[Docreed2003]

2. This guy is the most paranoid dude Ive ever seen in public office

What is he doing that he needs all of these expensive security measures?

[NewJeffCT]

4. He's shaking down lobbyists for kickbacks

in exchange for favorable legislation and/or rolling back regulations. Can't have people listening in to that.

[Docreed2003]

5. That really has to be the only explanation

[Tommy_Carcetti]

6. Maybe he's super cautious about his hearing and wants to have it tested on a regular basis.

[Flaleftist]

7. Okay. Im not in construction, but isnt there a better way to soundproof

a room than using 2 feet of concrete?

[SCVDem]

14. Start with a Faraday cage for EM suppression

Then line the insides with anechoic foam.

Effective and cost efficient.

[magicarpet]

8. He is getting his marching orders...

.... From the Kochs, the Mercers, and the CEOs of chemical companies and big industry but he does not what these insider deals to become public. The EPA will be decimated and gutted so the Fascist capitalists can dump toxic chemicals near and far while exploding their profits. Privatize the profits - socialize the costs of doing business. Spill as many of your business operational costs into someone else's lap - this is how toxic Super Fund Sites are made - then the US taxpayer gets stuck with the toxic chemicals clean up costs.

[magicarpet]

10. Trump has his own toxic mess he refuses to pay...

..... to clean up. Playing a shell game of who is the responsible owner so he and his son can avoid responsibility to clean up a toxic mess created by them.

--------------------------------------------------

(NYT - snip)

Chemical containers at the Titan Atlas Manufacturing site in North Charleston, S.C. President Trump’s eldest son helped start the company in 2010. It failed two years later.CreditKate Thornton for The New York Times
By Barry Meier

Feb. 7, 2017
South Carolina regulators on Tuesday rejected an effort by the Trump Organization to limit its environmental cleanup liabilities at an industrial site once owned by President Trump’s eldest son.

The decision is a rebuke of the Trump Organization and could result in millions of dollars in added costs for the company. It followed a refusal by the organization to provide regulators with required information about business ......

(end snip - much more at link)

https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/business/energy-environment/trump-organization-titan-environmental-cleanup.html?referer=android-app://com.google.android.googlequicksearchbox

[TygrBright]

16. Problem is, he can still hear himself think. n/t