Does the Government Purchase Card Program force us to overpay for everything and create an environment that is fiscally irresponsible?

I'm not a logistician, but I would love to have someone explain why the DOD should ever pay more than the market rate for commercially available items. By my understanding of basic economics, we should have the purchasing/negotiating power to get significantly below MSRP on many purchases. I suppose it's possible that there could be an unseen after - purchase refund to the gov't, like cash back on a typical consumer CC, but if so, it would be odd to keep that secret from the users who may be questioning the efficacy of the program.

In short...YES! Seriously though...it makes no sense that when I look through a GSA catalogue and see staples for $5 a box when I know they can be bought on the economy for $1 a box. I'm pretty sure GSA is a good example of SOMEONE getting rich off the government.