More than 300 House lawmakers were reimbursed at least $5.2 million for food and lodging while on official business in Washington last year under a new, taxpayer-funded program that does not require them to provide receipts.
....Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the program’s overall top spender, was reimbursed for nearly $30,000 in lodging expenses and more than $10,000 for food in 2023. He was reimbursed for more than $4,000 for lodging in two different months and more than $3,000 in five different months.
In the great scheme of things, $5.2 million isn't even pocket change. It's nickels-in-the-couch money. Still, combining this bill's reliance on the honor system with the fact that Matt Gaetz is the top spender is pretty good evidence that it's crooked. It's sort of like shoplifting, I suppose. Just a price of doing business.
our middle-aged congressmen could procure quite a lot of affection with that kind of money
Yes, it does beg the question, lodging for whom?
if you want love in dc, get a dog
obviously it's kennel charges
????????????
Just a price of doing business? Is it really that hard for them to get expense reports in? If nothing else give them a Congressional credit card to pay those expenses with to at least verify they are going to appropriate vendors. "Just get however much money you want" does not make any sense.
This mephitic piece of offal gets paid a salary for being totally disruptive yet he fleeces us for more. Is this how his father got rich?
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Government per diem rates for lodging and meals + incidentals tops out at about $400/day. (That's roughly what it is for San Francisco or NYC for the most expensive times of year.) If he can really claim that he did 100 days in 2023 at the most expensive cities in the US, *maybe* ... But it is really pushing the bounds.
Those are the per diem rates for regular old peons and even high level peons like presidential appointees and cabinet posts, but members of Congress? puhhh-lease, the rules don't apply to them.
It would be for time spent in Washington, DC, per what Kevin has posted. https://ballotpedia.org/117th_Congress_legislative_calendar suggests that the House is in session (which I assume would be official business) on average 149 days a year. Whether any additional days would qualify as official business I have no idea.
I cannot say categorically whether DC is as expensive as SF or NYC, but after I was raised in the District, the prices in Silicon Valley didn't seem remarkably different.
Good grief. Remember when abusing the mailing privileges and overdrafting on your Congressional checking account used to cost politicians their jobs? Hotels in DC are super-expensive and I don't think Gaetz is staying at the Super 8, but still, sheez.
How much more did Gaetz spend the the number two congressman? If he just happened to have spent the most but that amount was comparable to others, it's probably not a big deal. If he spent considerably more than the next top spenders, it probably needs to be reviewed.
Either way, there should be some oversight even if its a nominal amount of money in the big scheme of things. Maybe make them submit expense reports for anything over a certain amount or if they exceed a certain amount per quarter.
When I worked for the government I had to justify every expense above a set per diem. I don’t see why the members of congress should be any different.
#2 is Nancy Mace, another Rethuglican. She spent about half of what Gaetz spent but there's this nugget:
"Her staff told her she couldn’t conceivably net more than $1,726 in monthly reimbursements, but Mace requested reimbursements at an average of over $2,000 a month anyway."
https://newrepublic.com/post/182210/nancy-mace-staffers-excessive-reimbursements
...Except shoplifters get arrested sometimes and are not usually employed by the stores they steal from.
If you're going to cover up those lunch and dinner dates with under-age girls...
When I worked for the State of NJ, if I attended a meeting where lunch or breakfast was served, I needed to pay to organization as I couldn't accept it as a "gift"
You know, if there was a cap on these expenses, I think I'd be happy to safely ignore it. But of course Matt Gaetz would be the guy maxxing out the cap every time.
If this is based on GSA per diem rates for lodging, meals and incidentals this actually doesn't seem like a controversy.
GSA rates allow a range of lodging coats from about $175 to $260 per night based on the month. It allows $79 for meals and incidentals. So if he was in DC for about 150 days, that math easily checks out.
The only checkable things are:
1) Was he there for that number of days? If so the meals checks out pretty easily.
2) Was his lodging eligible for the per diem reimbursement? Usually it's for hotels. If he has a longer term rental apartment, I don't know if that qualifies.
Is there any data showing how much Gaetz was reimbursed for the same expenses BEFORE the "honor system" was introduced? Now THAT would be an interesting compare and contrast.
The first time "Matt Gaetz" and "honor" were used in the same sentence?
If I were a Congressperson, I'd provide receipts anyway for the purpose of scandal insurance.
Just because you think nobody's looking doesn't mean nobody will ever look.
Now that Jeffrey Epstein is gone, 13 year old hookers have gotten really expensive.