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Last Updated: Sep 2009
Last Updated: Sep 2009
The $600 dollar toilet seat was actually fair and reasonable. The United States military services are often in the position of making equipment last decades longer than originally designed. For example the B-52 bomber is more than 50 years old and expected to be useful for another 20 years. The famous toilet seat came about when about twenty Navy planes had to be rebuilt to extend their service life. The onboard toilets required a uniquely shaped fiberglass piece that had to satisfy specifications for the vibration resistance, weight, and durability. The molds had to be specially made as it had been decades since the planes original production. The price of the "seats" reflected the design work and the cost of the equipment to manufacture them.
The problem arose because the top level drawing for the toilet assembly referred to the part being purchased as a "Toilet Seat" instead of its proper nomenclature of "Shroud". The Navy had made a conscious decision at the time, not to pay the OEM of the aircraft the thousands of dollars it would take to update their top level drawing in order to fix this mistake in nomenclature.
Later some unknown Senate staffer combing lists of military purchases for the Golden Fleece Awards found "Toilet Seat - $600" and trumpeted it to the news media as an example of "government waste." The Senate then wrote into the appropriations bill that this item would not be purchased for anything more than $140.00. The shroud has never been purchased since, as no one can make the shroud at that price.
President Reagan had actually held a televised news conference, where he held up one of these shrouds. During the press conference, he explained to true story. The media at the time and still today, would much rather have the public believe that the Pentagon was actually paying $640.00 for a $12.00 toilet seat.
Bottom line, no matter what you see in the press or elsewhere, the Navy never actually paid $640 for a "Toilet Seat".
The problem arose because the top level drawing for the toilet assembly referred to the part being purchased as a "Toilet Seat" instead of its proper nomenclature of "Shroud". The Navy had made a conscious decision at the time, not to pay the OEM of the aircraft the thousands of dollars it would take to update their top level drawing in order to fix this mistake in nomenclature.
Later some unknown Senate staffer combing lists of military purchases for the Golden Fleece Awards found "Toilet Seat - $600" and trumpeted it to the news media as an example of "government waste." The Senate then wrote into the appropriations bill that this item would not be purchased for anything more than $140.00. The shroud has never been purchased since, as no one can make the shroud at that price.
President Reagan had actually held a televised news conference, where he held up one of these shrouds. During the press conference, he explained to true story. The media at the time and still today, would much rather have the public believe that the Pentagon was actually paying $640.00 for a $12.00 toilet seat.
Bottom line, no matter what you see in the press or elsewhere, the Navy never actually paid $640 for a "Toilet Seat".
A toilet seat is the seat and lid of a toilet. Automatic toilet seats in Japanese toilets may include a large number of features, including a bidet, a blow drier, and a heated seat. They come in a wide variety of shapes, from the normal porcelain ovate seat to the opened-front seat often seen in public restrooms. They can be made of porcelain, plastic, steel, ivory or wood. Some metal toilets, such as those in many jails and prisons, have built-in toilet seats.
The toilet seat is a comic staple for sight gags relating to toilet humor. The most common is someone staggering out of a bathroom after an explosion with a toilet seat around his neck. In the television show Dead Like Me, George Lass, the main character, is killed when a zero-G toilet seat from space station Mir re-enters the atmosphere.
In 2004 Senator Chuck Grassley (R Iowa) said: "I exposed the spending scandal in the '80s when federal bureaucrats saw no problem in spending $600 for a toilet seat . . .". Some now claim that neither that nor his also famous revelation of the Pentagon spending $400 for a hammer actually ever happened. Others say the prices paid were fair and justifiable.
The toilet seat is a comic staple for sight gags relating to toilet humor. The most common is someone staggering out of a bathroom after an explosion with a toilet seat around his neck. In the television show Dead Like Me, George Lass, the main character, is killed when a zero-G toilet seat from space station Mir re-enters the atmosphere.
In 2004 Senator Chuck Grassley (R Iowa) said: "I exposed the spending scandal in the '80s when federal bureaucrats saw no problem in spending $600 for a toilet seat . . .". Some now claim that neither that nor his also famous revelation of the Pentagon spending $400 for a hammer actually ever happened. Others say the prices paid were fair and justifiable.
