US government does strategic planning when they make large purchases. There are also a bunch of weird laws at play, so at times you might on one hand say that "

US government does strategic planning when they make large purchases. There are also a bunch of weird laws at play, so at times you might on one hand say that "the law requires" and on the other hand consider it voluntarily paying more, because it's the US government passing laws to restrict how its own purchases are made. You also might pay $5 for a hot dog at a stadium when you can buy them for $1 outside, so there's that.