Excerpt: The nonprofit Sunlight Foundation, which gathers data to make government more transparent, discovered last June that the House spent about $2 million in taxpayer dollars on coffee and catered food for guests. At $95,000, Republican Kevin McCarthy of California spent the most (how demoralizing for him!), including $4,000 on bottled water alone. Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), in a September 2013 speech before the House in favor of food stamps, pointed how how much Congressmembers spent on food while abroad: One member was given $127.41 a day for food on his trip to Argentina. He probably had a fair amount of steak. Another member was given $3,588 for food and lodging during a six-day trip to Russia. He probably drank a fair amount of vodka and probably even had some caviar. That particular member has 21,000 food-stamp recipients in his district. One of those people who is on food stamps could live a year on what this Congressman spent on food and lodging for six days. Another 20 members made a trip to Dublin, Ireland. They got $166 a day for food. These members didn’t pay a dime. They received almost $200 for a single meal only for themselves. Yet, for them the idea of helping fellow Americans spend less than $5 a day makes their skin crawl.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Mar 2014 11:05:28 +0000
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