NEOAVATARA

What would you say about a government paid lease for a Congressman for a Lexus hybrid costing $70 grad?

How about buying a $1,400 digital camera?  Or a flat screen TV?

These are just some of the legal expenses you and I are paying for Congressoinal members.  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.  Rep. Howard Berman expensed $84,000 worth of personalized calendars, printed by the U.S. Capitol Historical Society, for his constituents.  Rahm Emanuel, who resigned from his Illinois congressional seat in January to become President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, recorded a $33,000 printing expense in the fourth quarter. An aide to Mr. Emanuel said it was for an official mailing sent to every household in his district.

Around 100 lawmakers lease cars using their official allowances.a

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.

Congress has also dramatically expanded its travel budget.  The Budget has increased 10 fold since 1995.  And that includes a 50% Jump since 2007. These have included locales such as Italy, Greece, and the Galapagos islands.  I think this about says it all:

What makes it worse is that there is little daylight on these expenses.  House lawmakers submit receipts and records to the chief administrative officer, who publishes a statement each quarter that runs more than 3,000 pages. Each member’s expense ledger takes up about six pages and includes a short description of each expense, its amount and the date incurred. The Senate publishes two volumes every six months, with descriptions that are less detailed than those published by the House.  Only a thorough investigation would tell you exactly what is happening.

Many lawmakers don’t spend their full allocation. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) had about $57,000 remaining in her budget at the end of 2008. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) had $228,000.

It is not the expenditures that specifically bothers me.  The inability of constituents to know what their duly elected representatives are spending for their own benefit should be readily available and open to the public.  Even the car leases may be reasonable.  But it is up to the voters to decide what they think is acceptable or not.

But this is just another piece of the puzzle.  Washington is achieving a level of corruption and cronyism that has not been seen for years.  The last time was probably 1994…when Democrats has multiple large corruption scandals, that among other things helped the Republicans gain power for the first time in four decades.  Liberals fear movements like the Tea Party Protests because they help coalesce public opinion to fight against this kind of ridiculousness.  In addition to Democrats complete lack of debate on any major bill this year…and the public anger is likely to hit new heights soon.