You nail it. In 2006 A friend asked me to manage a job he had doing historic preservation of the Vice President's Ceremonial Office in the EEOB. We stripped off FDR's "woe is us" Depression Era gray paint from the original woodwork and restored the original splendor... then Joe Biden moved in a couple years later. Then Pence... then H a r r i s.
https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/vicepresident/ovp.html
The restoration project was funded by private donations, but the main purpose was security upgrades after 9/11, paid for by us stupid taxpayers. All of the windows in the EEOB were replaced with bullet-proof glass (something like 600 windows if I remember right) and when an official inspector came through he said, "oh my this won't do, since this is on a street it must be bomb-proof glass!!!" The general contractor said, 'oh golly, we're already behind schedule and over budget, but we'll gladly change everything to bomb-proof glass!!! Here's the new bill." When that was done, the next highly qualified government inspector came through and said, "oh my, this won't do, bomb-proof glass is not bullet-proof! This needs to be bullet-proof, bomb-proof glass!" To which the highly qualified general contractor said, 'oh golly, we're already way behind schedule and so far over budget, but we'll gladly change everything to bullet-proof, bomb-proof glass. If you need anything else you can reach me at my villa in the Bahamas."
I could go on a long time about the waste and corruption I saw there (during GWB) but my security clearance required limiting any discussion to more or less what I've said.
