An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
It’s The Economy, Stupid!
Lawmakers Using Public Funds for Eye-Catching Purchases
Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings spent $24,730 in taxpayer money last year to lease a 2008 luxury Lexus hybrid sedan. Ohio Rep. Michael Turner expensed a $1,435 digital camera. Eni Faleomavaega, the House delegate from American Samoa, bought two 46-inch Sony TVs.
The expenditures were legal, properly accounted for and drawn from allowances the U.S. government grants to lawmakers. Equipment purchased with office expense accounts must be returned to the House or the federal General Services Administration when a lawmaker leaves office.
Do you get an extra ‘allowance’ from your boss. Some folks might get use of a company car, for the advertising, or just cuz, but I don’t know of anyone who ever received funds above and beyond their salary to buy big honkin’ TVs, or a ridiculously overpriced camera. These people get a salary of $174,000 a year! They shouldn’t be getting a dime, except for maybe travel expenses, and even then, 99.9% of them are already rich enough, they don’t need any salary or perks to pay their bills. So, why is it that we are buying them new toys? If ol’ Alcee really has to have a hybrid, I’m fairly sure he could actually BUY one for close to $24K. It won’t be a Lexus, but then, not all of us can afford a Lexus, of any kind.
The Senate and House release volumes of the reimbursement requests for these allowances, but do not make them available electronically. A Wall Street Journal review of thousands of pages of these records for 2008 expenses showed most lawmaker spending flowed to areas such as staff salaries, travel, office rent and supplies, and printing and mailing.
Evidently, they are at least smart enough to know if the general public gets wind of their little shopping sprees, there would be a bit of an uproar. And don’t they already have a budget allocated for their staff? Why do they need to go dipping into the public coffers for more? Budget not big enough? Tough! LEARN to make do with one less staffer, use the cheaper brand of coffee, get the generic brand of creamer. That’s what WE have to do!
But it also turned up spending on an array of products, from the car leases and electronics to a high-end laptop computer and $22 cell phone holder. Rep. Howard Berman expensed $84,000 worth of personalized calendars, printed by the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, for his constituents. A spokeswoman for Mr. Berman, a California Democrat, didn’t return requests for comment.
Well, hells bells, I’d be hiding out too! Calendars? You gotta be kidding! I might like ya, but I don’t want to pay for YOUR calendar form YOUR so called representative. Don’t these people have ANY common sense at all? No wonder they spend like drunken sailors. The difference is, at least the sailors know enough not to keep spending when the money runs out. These clowns just bop themselves on over to the Treasury and have ‘em print up some more!
The records show that some lawmakers spent heavily in the final months of the year to draw down allowances before the end of December — a time when U.S. households were paring their budgets and lawmakers were criticizing Detroit auto executives for taking private aircraft to Washington to plead their case for taxpayer funding.
So, instead of being caretakers of OUR money, they want to make sure to spend as much as possible, so they can get just as much, or more, to throw around when the next budget comes up. Oh yeah….that makes ALL kinds of sense. The “let’s screw the little guy” mentality should get every single one of them a one way ticket…..home!
All this and we still have libtards who pretend that taxes need to be raised! The governing bodies need a deep colon cleansing enema!
Ewwwwww…..mental image!!!