Readers React to U.S. Marshals' "Swag" Spending

Yesterday's article, "U.S. Marshals Under Fire for Spending Nearly $800,000 on 'Swag,'" produced some great and insightful reactions from the community. Some of our favorites are reproduced below:

Said reader "Reality Check:"
"For a business or government agency the question is the same. What was the VALUE received, not the cost alone. $160,000 annual average cost measured against good value received may have actually saved money. The US Army sponsors NASCAR. All branches of armed services have substantial recruiting budgets that make this investment by the USMS seem tiny. But once again it is easy for an uninformed public to be influenced by denigrating promotional advertising specialties. If investigations were actually intended to show facts rather than to support an agenda, we would see recruiting costs comparisons using specialties and not using them. It is ironic the in the same span of time Mr. Obama spent $5 million on vacations!"

Said reader "Sgee:"
"Yes, It appears they overspent and yes it appears promotional products are being singled-out again by a Government Agency. However, nearly $40,000 for lapel pins (?)—Hmm I'd sure like to be the company selected for that order... Also, what I've learned a while ago is, a company accepted into a 'Government Contract' to do business has to pay yearly to do so. It comes at a price... and the bidding wars are hefty. With the bidding involved I can't imagine how costs for these items were so high. Although not all the information is provided in the article - costs seem excessive for the items ordered."

Said reader "promoman:"
"You should look at the GPO—"Government Print Office" of what they spend on promotional products—it's crazy the amount of money—millions upon millions of dollars are spent on foolish imprinted promotional items our Government—Not only do they accept the lowest bid—but if the lowest bid is awarded most likely the product is being produced in China or overseas—the GPO does not support our USA factories who manufactures products here in the USA—all it cares about is the cheapest price they can purchase the product at.....What happened to supporting our factories here in the USA?"

Many more great and interesting points can be found in the original story here. What do you think? Sound off here, or on in the comments field of the original story.