The First Temptation of a New Congress

Politicians love to brag about how they are trying to cut government spending in order to eliminate the debt and save the nation’s economy. In fact, as Politico pointed out on June 8, 2011, many freshmen GOP members ran campaigns and won their elections on that very premise. However, as the article also pointed out, it appears that some of them changed gears rather quickly and became sucked into the Washington, D.C. way of doing business. “They rode into Washington on an anti-spending wave, but some House Republican freshmen are already enjoying one of the perks of incumbency, spending their office budgets on everything from $1,000-a-month car leases to pricey online advertising contracts.At least 15 GOP freshmen have shelled out tens of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money on mass communication — or franking — designed to boost their exposure back home, even as they call for budget cuts and pared-back government spending, according to quarterly disbursement reports released by the House.”

One of the worst offenders mentioned in the article was Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who in his first term in office has already spent $78,518.  This equates to about $900 a day for each and every day of the first 3 months of his career in office. And what is he paying for?  For one, mass mailings of a pamphlet on “some of the ways we [Congress] can help”. One way Rep. Kinzinger could help is to not waste taxpayer’s money on useless pamphlets that will never be read by anyone.  Another item of questionable spending by Rep. Kinzingerwas for advertising for the multimedia section of his website. There is no indication that either of these expenditures will help reduce government spending and practically every American over the age of 12 knows about the problems with government spending and does not need a taxpayer funded pamphlet or a cool website to remind them or tell them how to let their representative know about it. This is either the biggest case of hypocrisy or irony, you decide.

Another “fun” example of a member of Congress blatantly wasting taxpayer money is the newly-elected Minnesota Representative Chip Cravaackwho used taxpayer money to pay $1,000 a month to lease a car.  Rep. Cravaack claimed that “he needs the car because of the size and climate of the district, frequent trips home and ‘an extensive mobile office constituent outreach program.'”  Even if he didn’t already own a car, members of Congress have a generous salary of $169,000 and can afford their own car.  Still, even with his excuses of why he needs taxpayer money for a car, there is no indication as to why he thought it was necessary to get such an expensive car.

Even with the numerous examples of politicians squandering taxpayer money away, the article thankfully presents a few examples of politicians that have not made complete hypocrites of themselves. Florida Representatives Allen West and Sandy Adams have spent nothing on franking during the first quarter. It is nice to know there are a few politicians that seem to have a realistic concept of money. Unfortunately, taxpayers won’t believe that Congress is serious about budget cuts until Congress can restrain themselves from spending money on worthless items.