Revisiting the $16 Muffin
Did the Justice Dept. actually pay $16 apiece for pastries?
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Washington has plenty of problems to tackle these days—unemployment, the debt, and disaster relief among them. Now comes another toughie: calculating the proper price of a muffin.
The muffin mini-scandal began in late September as a tantalizing line in a government report: The Justice Dept.’s Inspector General found that at a 2009 conference for immigration lawyers held at the Capital Hilton in Washington, attendees were served muffins—for which taxpayers were billed $16.80 apiece. Over the course of the five-day conference, the report said, the total muffin bill added up to a whopping $4,200.