Social Security is expected to run out of money within the next 30 years, but money didn’t seem to be in short supply last weekend when the agency spent $700,000 on a conference at a 4-star Arizona resort.
The conference, held at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa, featured dance lessons and motivational speakers, plus sessions with titles like “Techniques to Empower You” and “Emotional Intelligence.” Attendees visited a nearby casino and many of them brought family members along who got to chill out at the pool.
Programming plus airfare, hotel and food for all of the attendees added up to more than $700,000.
The meeting for 675 of the agency’s managers was necessary, Social Security representatives say, to help staff learn to handle stress following several death threats against employees, reports ABC15, the Phoenix, Ariz. ABC affiliate.
But members of Congress aren’t buying that argument. In a letter to the commissioner of Social Security, members of the House of Representatives subcommittee on Social Security call the situation “troubling” given that “millions of Americans are out of work and having to do more with less.” They are asking that all documents pertaining to the conference be submitted to Congress for review by Friday.
