July 16, 2009 10:55AM # Social Security Administration Bureaucrats Have a Party…and Taxpayers Pick Up a $700,000 Tab By [Daniel J. Mitchell](https://www.cato.org/people/daniel-mitchell) --- SHARE With so much money being squandered in Washington, $700,000 does not even rise to the level of an asterisk. But when that much money is being wasted so that senior bureaucrats from the Social Security Administration can enjoy a party (oops, a training session) at a four-star resort in Arizona, it becomes a symbol of Washington profligacy. Kudos to ABC News for [running a story](http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=8084663&page=1) on this travesty. Make sure to watch the embedded video of bureaucrats “reducing stress” at your expense: > … nearly 700 executives from the Social Security Administration (SSA) gathered for a lavish three-day conference in Phoenix, AZ last week, costing taxpayers about $700,000.… The conference, which included a performance by a motivational dance company that was captured on tape by Phoenix affiliate ABC15, was held at the Arizona Biltmore, a hotel described as the “Jewel of the Desert” with an oasis of 39 acres of lush gardens, swimming pools and a golf course. SSA executives were invited to join in the dancing. ##### Related Tags [Social Security](https://www.cato.org/topic/social-security) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).