Throwback Thursday: In 1985, Navy Spends Big on Custom Doormats
In 1985, The U.S. Navy spent $792 – $2,193 in 2022 dollars — on a single designer doormat, buying an unknown amount of them, earning it a Golden Fleece award.
Sen. William Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, gave awards to wasteful and nonsensical spending, eventually handing out 168 Golden Fleece Awards between 1975 and 1988.
“That’s right, $792 for a custom-made doormat so Navy personnel can walk on nothing but the best,” Proxmire said then. “Meanwhile, the poor taxpayer gets walked all over with this outrageous expense.”
The Rolls Royce of doormats, an 8x10 foot doormat with the Medical Command’s logo woven into it in metallic blue, white, yellow and turquoise, was added to the Navy Medical Command Southeast Region in Jacksonville, Florida.
“The poor taxpayer may wipe his shoes on a $3 doormat when he goes home, but not the Navy,” the senator said. “It’s damn the cost, full feet ahead on a doormat you’d be ashamed to get muddy.”
When he asked the Navy to justify the expense, Proxmire said the military branch said, “This purchase fills a legitimate command requirement.”
“I’d like to see how legitimate they’d think this purchase was if their commanders had to pay for it, instead of the poor taxpayer,” Proxmire said. “What’s more, the Navy said these designer doormats ‘are used by most major naval headquarters commands.’”
“The problem is the medical center’s designer doormat seems to be just the tip of the mat pile,” the senator quipped. “These fancy doormats seem to be lying around at military facilities everywhere.”
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