Washington becoming a semi ghost town

 Monica Showalter:

We often ask who's running the government with a White House led by doddering Joe Biden.

But with a new audit out, maybe the real question is what is the government.

According to the Washington Examiner:

The evacuation of federal headquarters during the COVID-19 crisis appears to have become permanent and costly with up to 90% of several agency headquarters empty, according to a federal audit.

At least 6 of 24 Washington area headquarters are 90% empty, including several that manage federal office space and employees such as the General Services Administration and the Office of Personnel Management.

The audit from the Government Accountability Office found that just six agencies were operating with half of their staff in the office during the first three months of 2023, the latest sign that efforts to get federal employees back into the office after the coronavirus crisis and after years of encouraging telework have failed.

The findings echo private sector reports. In Washington, private offices are less than 40% full.

Turns out the government buildings Joe Biden presides over in his expensive, bloated government are about as empty as the old dotard's head.

It's like we have a pretend president, presiding over a pretend government.

Practically every agency headquarters is something like 80% empty.

But the empty buildings still stand, as if to suggest that something had been there.  Mainly, it's the illusion of power and importance.

Overall, Uncle Sam owns or leases 511 million square feet. That includes some 1,500 buildings and 7,685 leases. It costs $7 billion a year to maintain buildings and lease others, said GAO.

The auditing agency urged headquarters to consider consolidating or dumping space and to even consider joining with other agencies to share space.

But many rejected that advice. "One official said their leadership is reluctant to share headquarters space with other agencies because it could lower their perceived standing as a cabinet-level agency," said the audit report.

One thing the audit also notes is that these empty buildings waste a lot of electricity even with no one in them.  So as Joe Biden tries to shove us into green vehicles and pay more at the pump to bankroll his energy transition, he's busy burning electricity...on nothing.

The Wall Street Journal, in an editorial on the matter, has noted that even the worst empty building problems in the private sector, such as vacant office towers in big blue-run cities, are dwarfed by the emptiness of the federal government buildings. 

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The federal government is seen as bloated with people who don't show up.  Blue cities are bloated with empty office spaces where people have not returned to the office after the Covid pandemic.   This no longer looks like a transitory problem but a permanent one.  It is one that the Biden administration has so far, not demonstrated an awareness of much less a solution for.  It is something that economists should be studying for a solution.