Where is the money! (Auto-Pen Problems)

[guyfriday]

Bit of a rant, then a talking point here:
Hunter Biden fled to 'ultra-luxurious' vacation in South Africa with round-the-clock Secret Service protection — avoiding grueling deposition

Hunter Biden fled last week to South Africa for a luxury vacation — with round-the-clock Secret Service protection — avoiding a grueling deposition scheduled for this week in a California lawsuit.
 
California District Court Judge Herman Vera granted Hunter’s motion to dismiss the case Thursday after the former first son claimed he was too broke to continue suing former Trump staffer Garrett Ziegler and his nonprofit Marco Polo.
 
But photographs show Hunter was already in Cape Town the day the case was dismissed, staying in a $500-a-night beachfront villa described on its website as an “ultra-luxurious designer home with spectacular 180 degrees unobstructed views of the sea.”

The article points out these important details:

The scandal-prone 55-year-old son of Joe Biden does not qualify for statutory Secret Service protection, which only applies to former presidents’ children aged under 16, per the Former Presidents Protection Act (codified in 18 USC, Section 3056).

 
and

But Biden issued an executive memorandum before he left the presidency indefinitely extending Secret Service protection for his son, according to Trump administration sources.

and then this,

“While we can’t comment on the specifics of our protective means and methods, we can confirm Mr. Biden is an authorized protectee of the US Secret Service,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told The Post on Friday.
 
Guglielmi would not confirm that 18 Secret Service agents have traveled to Cape Town with Hunter. But he said, “Our agents are trained, authorized and mandated by federal law to provide security anywhere in the world for individuals under our protection.”

Ok there's the story and look Hunter wasn't elected to any office, isn't in the position for the need of any protection, and given that he went to another country to avoid a court hearing says that all of these Secret Service agents should be canned. 


Now my talking point here;
This protection given to Hunter Biden was given during the last days of the Biden Administration, but as everyone knows by now Joe Biden only signed one document and that was the one declaring that he was dropping out of the Presidential run. This means that Hunters Secret Service protection was authorized by auto-pen. The article states that this trip of Hunters has costed the US Tax Payers a total of 500k. How many others have been auto-pen granted tax payer funded programs during the Biden Administration? 

This isn't just an outrage over Hunter wasting tax payer money, but instead a highlighting of governmental waste that people looking might not even be aware of as waste given that the money was apparently legally given.

[Maxmars]

I am in no way defending the choices of freedoms exercised by these people... however,

Whether the 'authorization' was signed by 'auto pen' or even 'verbal,' it was nevertheless authorized.  The 'tool' of authority is there for their use, presumably a privilege entrusted to people who serve these roles (regardless of our estimations of their service.)

I won't belabor the ways that the families of elected officials are especially vulnerable... they do deserve some protections for their exposure...

Now as to the specifics... no... it doesn't meet any criteria for 'acceptable,' at least not in my opinion.

[guyfriday]

This is the issue that the Hunter Biden story has brought to light. These expenditures are legal only because there is no legal conclusions as in regulations of the means. 

There needs to be regulations on these things and not just "understandings". Real written rules.