Seven Tea Party Freshmen Spent More Than $100,000 In Taxpayer Money On Personal Cars

Though they campaigned on a platform of reducing the deficit and ridding wasteful spending, more than a half-dozen Tea Party congressmen have collectively spent over $100,000 in taxpayer money on personal vehicles.

ThinkProgress examined spending records for the 112th Congress and found seven GOP freshmen — Reps. Chip Cravaack (R-MN), Sean Duffy (R-WI), Bill Flores (R-TX), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Bill Johnson (R-OH), Mike Pompeo (R-KS), and Steve Womack (R-AR) — who had spent an average of $15,000 on cars for themselves. All together, their taxpayer bill totaled $106,643.

Seven Tea Party Freshmen...

The moneys for these cars did not come out of there salaries but out of there discretionary office expenses. So much for the rhetoric of leading by example.

Here’s what the seven Republican freshmen’s congressional offices have spent on cars in the past year and a half:
Rep. Chip Cravaack (R-MN): $25,580.84
Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI): $24,525.00
Rep. Bill Flores (R-TX): $10,997.45
Rep. Cory Gardner (R-CO): $20,978.07
Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH): $4,889.76
Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS): $8,848.00
Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR): $10,746.59
TOTAL: $106,643

Is this what you voted for? Is this what you expected?

You're worried about a measly $106k in tax payer money but does the 6 trillion added to the national debt in the past 4 years even register?

I could care less about $106k in the grand scheme of how we're spending our way into a new currency. Lets pass a national budget before we start ripping on the smaller sub-political groups for spending what is seen as pennies to our Federal Government.

I didn't vote for these people, but I also didn't vote for a platform of "intervention" wars, corporations ruling the country, or for my constitutional rights to be removed. For some reason, I don't think our votes really matter....

I just bought myself a 29,000 nissan.

So at those prices... they going either compact to mid size.

No town cars, no luxury or sports?

Im fine with this.

can we get comparisons to their counterparts as well to makes this report fair and balanced?

reply to post by benrl


Did the other guys run on a platform of less government, and less spending?

reply to post by LDragonFire

Did the other guys run on a platform of less government, and less spending?

exactly so compare them to their counter parts.

If they spent less on cars than they did... Well that would be correct than wouldn't it?

Or are you just going for a propaganda piece?

Originally posted by benrl
I just bought myself a 29,000 nissan.

So at those prices... they going either compact to mid size.

No town cars, no luxury or sports?

Im fine with this.

can we get comparisons to their counterparts as well to makes this report fair and balanced?

edit on 26-7-2012 by benrl because: (no reason given)

YEAH no kidding I thought that was 100K each LOL for 7 cars that is Frugal LOL although I am not a Tea Party fan

I'm not understanding the umbrage. Spending 10k on vehicle rentals sounds like a pretty average business expense, especially when you business involves a lot of travel. They were not luxury vehicles nor sports cars but "get the job done" sort of cars at those prices. Certainly not the hundreds of thousands of dollars Nancy Pelosi spent per trip to fly herself back and forth on military aircraft.

reply to post by LDragonFire


It seems some people are ok with this as it was just a little bit and we should be concerned with the trillions of dollars stolen.
I can see that angle...
These "petty thieves" stole anywhere from 5 to 25 grand from the taxpayers.
I sure hope the next time I go buy a vehicle I can get a 25 grand "instant rebate"!
It seems that if I even stole one hundred dollars, I'd go to prison.
They expect me to support myself, I'd expect the same from them.
So..... yeah it is a small amount, but every bit adds up.
Let's also go after the other crooks as well huh?

reply to post by LDragonFire


If they will repeal Obamacare, keep my taxes low and balance the budget in 10 years I wouldn’t have a problem with them all buying a new Cadillac or two!

What a lame attempt at a hit-piece, OP.

Does your job give you a car?

They make 175k a year and each one ran on less government spending.

Even if the amount is small its still tax payer money they are spending, when they more than have the means to take care of there own transportation.

reply to post by LDragonFire

Does your job give you a car?

Yes, my job gave me a 35k car on lease...

I was a Multi-unit Manager for a retail chain...

I drove over a small area of LA county at the time, it was part of my job to drive.

So yea, jobs do that...

It was also a better car than these people probably had, so Good on them for being humble...

reply to post by g146541

These "petty thieves" stole anywhere from 5 to 25 grand from the taxpayers.

Stole??

It’s the cost of doing business. Are they expected to ride a bicycle every where? Should taxpayers be concerned with congressman writing off some small travel expenses related to conducting business or Michelle Obama’s vacations related to NO BUSINESS?

First Lady Michelle Obama’s vacation in Spain with her daughter Sasha, several friends, their children, and some White House staffers cost U.S. taxpayers at least $467,585, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, a conservative public interest group that fights government corruption.

link


Money well spent, huh?

Where is your outrage??

What a deal...7 cars for 100k? sounds reasonable compared to $460k on a vacation to spain for the first lady...

linky

eta..snap seabag got there before me..

Originally posted by g146541
reply to post by LDragonFire

 

It seems some people are ok with this as it was just a little bit and we should be concerned with the trillions of dollars stolen.
I can see that angle...
These "petty thieves" stole anywhere from 5 to 25 grand from the taxpayers.
I sure hope the next time I go buy a vehicle I can get a 25 grand "instant rebate"!
It seems that if I even stole one hundred dollars, I'd go to prison.
They expect me to support myself, I'd expect the same from them.
So..... yeah it is a small amount, but every bit adds up.
Let's also go after the other crooks as well huh?

Interesting. Considering that government offices have to spend some money just to do business, how much of using alloted expenses is too much? 100 bucks in stamps? They are given a budget for legitimate office expenses because the office has to run. Is it that these expenses were over budget? Fraudulent? Wasteful? Personal luxury? I don't understand what sort of smoking gun the OP thinks he has found here.

Heck, the democratic Caucus spent more than that for a week-end getaway for their staffers.

$114,925
Amount the Democratic Caucus paid for its staff to have a getaway for the weekend to set the caucus' 2009 legislative agenda at the Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Va.

reply to post by LDragonFire

Does your job give you a car?

Currently…YES. And the company provides me an expense account for BUSINESS related purchases (including food). It's the cost of doing business...why should I have to pay for that stuff while I'm making the company lots of money?

They make 175k a year and each one ran on less government spending.

Even if the amount is small its still tax payer money they are spending, when they more than have the means to take care of there own transportation.

They claimed to be ‘fiscal conservatives’ not ‘insane’!

If all those are lease prices, those spending over 20k a year are milking taxpayers for luxury cars. The remainder are reasonable amounts.

I give up

If you want a headache, go look at the actual report: disbursements.house.gov... It's over 3000 pages long. I sacrificed myself for you guys and looked at some of the Congressmen starting with "R" for a sample. It appeared that the $8,000 to $13,000 range was the most common.

I don't know why the article would have included the guy shelling out $4,000, that seems to be one of the very lowest amounts. Maybe they had to get the total up to $100,000 to make it look important.

reply to post by LDragonFire

Was it spent on fixing/modifying/replacing the cars? Just curious. Are you sure they were personal vehicles? Also were they eligible for re-imbursement every year for using their personal car for work purposes? If they were government vehicles then it is understood that dealerships/repair shops usually charge corporate/government rate of labor and parts. It is ethically wrong to spend it on personal vehicles. Eitherway the amount spent by these guys is nothing but a 'piss and a fart in front of a thunder' liberals have been spending and giving away.

Power corrupts. I don't care what your political persuasion is. That is why their needs to be much tighter control of how politicians spend our money.
This seems however to be taken completely out of context and the op offers no comparison from the other side of the political aisle.
More dirty campaigning is seems.