Politicians in Washington are quite adept at wasting money and coming up with clever excuses for new programs, but they are rank amateurs compared to their counterparts across the ocean. In Europe, politicians and bureaucrats have become so adept at twisting words that the European Commission actually announced that it “protected taxpayers’ interests” by spending almost every penny it received. The EU Observer reports on this Kafka-esque abuse of language:

The European Union has become better at spending money resulting in EU capitals getting back less of their annual membership fee, the European Commission has announced. …Out of the €107.4 billion EU spending finally agreed on for 2006 only €950 million was left unused — down from €1 billion in 2005. “Improved budget management and better planning help protect taxpayers’ interests,” said EU budget commissioner Dalia Grybauskaite in a statement. …the European Union is not allowed to make any profit and any surplus is therefore channelled back to EU member states’ coffers by way of a rebate on the year’s EU fee.