She is not delusional. She knows exactly how the fee will get pushed along to the consumer. This type of thing is done by almost all bureaucrats at one time or another. Since CG has been a bureaulifer, this practice of letting someone else deliver the bad news has become NOP, and completely natural.

I see this all the time where a gov't employee tells Joe Landowner that "All you need to do is have your consultant fill out these forms, and submit this report and this project will be a go." They leave it up to me to tell them that the forms and report cost $30k, and the process is about 3 years long. Even though they (gov't employee) know that the news they are giving is bad, they make it sound good so that they do not get the immediate backlash.

Like I said, NOP.