A Stitch in Haste

We may soon find out:

Lawmakers and watchdog groups worry that allowing federal employees to charge up to $250,000 on their government-issued credit cards for Hurricane Katrina-related expenses will lead to a repeat of past abuses.

Some of the cards in the past were used to pay for prostitutes, gambling activity, even breast implants, government audits have shown.
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About 250,000 federal employees have government credit cards, which typically have a purchase limit of $2,500. At the request of the Bush administration, Congress increased the credit line to $250,000 as part of a massive Katrina recovery bill approved last week. The aim is to make it easier to speed aid to victims.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said the "outrageous increase" was "slipped" into the bill. He is seeking to insert language in a Katrina health bill that would reduce the limit in most cases to $50,000.

My first question is: What's $250,000 per bureaucrat times 250,000 bureaucrats?

My second question is: Should there really be 250,000 federal employees with government credit cards under any circumstances?

My third question is: How exactly does it help Katrina victims to have so many bureaucrats have so much credit at their disposal? Are they all personally going to the local Wal-Marts to buy diapers for the families?

My fourth question is: Where is all this money is going to come from, given that, according to senior congressional tax-and-spend Republican Tom DeLay, "there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget"?

POST SCRIPT: The answer to the first question is $62.5 billion. Hope you have your credit card handy when the tax bill comes due.