Taxpayers spent $24k on Alcee Hastings' ride

WSJ:  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.

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. But as British politicians come under widening scorn for spending public money on everything from candy bars to moat-dredging, an examination of U.S. lawmakers' expense claims shows Washington's elected officials have also used public funds for eye-catching purchases.

Comments

[...]

$2,000 a month lease payment??? And it needs to be returned to the US Government... and a lease payment is acceptable...

No wonder we are in such bad shape...

[ANGRY TAXPAYER!!!]

We need to be able to recall our Congressional Representative, our State Representatives and Senators AND our Governor.

This Marie Antoinette mentality of ALL our Elected Officials must end.

[Senator Hypocrite]

THIS GUY ONLY REPRESENTS A SMALL PIECE OF THE STATE---HE IS NOT A STATEWIDE ELECTED OFFICIAL.

Atwater: ditch the state plane, take a minivan instead

Posted by Josh Hafenbrack
February 17, 2009
Senate President Jeff Atwater said today that elected officials should think twice about hopping aboard state planes to get to and from Tallahassee, as legislators weigh whether to trim the state's two-plane executive air fleet.

"I can tell you, since the day I was elected this time around, I'm running the rear end off my minivan," Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, said.
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Senate chief took wing 111 times on state fleet in '07

By STEVE BOUSQUET, Tallahassee Bureau Chief
Published January 3, 2008
TALLAHASSEE - He answers to the title of Senate president, but Ken Pruitt earned another one in 2007: frequent flier.

The Port St. Lucie Republican flew on state planes 111 times at a total cost of about $24,000, according to Bureau of Aircraft records.

Some of Pruitt's lieutenants weren't far behind. Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, flew 95 times; Sen. Mike Haridopolos, R-Melbourne, 65 times; Sen. Lisa Carlton, R-Osprey, 49 times; and Sen. Daniel Webster, R-Winter Garden, 39 times.

[history repeating]

Sadly enough, this isn't the worst thing Alcee Hastings has ever done. People seem to forget that Alcee Hastings is a member of an elite club of federal judges who have been removed from the bench. He impeached by the US Senate, for G-d's sake. His greatest hits from his career on the bench include bribery and perjury.

[Dag Nabbit]

Legalized corruption.

[Term Limits]

Pimp My Congressman

[sambo]

wazza brotha to do?

[whasup]

Bring back the axeman. Off with their heads!

[voter]

what about the rest of the FL delegation?

[robert Taft]

Don't forget about Corrine Brown's daughter getting a luxury car from an overseas businessman...

Anything goes and people forget fast.
Both parties guilty..TERM LIMITS!!!!! Only way to root them out.

[Just Sayin]

Hey Adam, try posting the cost of Chairman Obama's little jaunt with Michelle over the weekend:

Fly to NYC in Air Force 1
Stop in the Village for dinner and a play
Fly back to DC

My guess $1.5 Million..... Talk amongst yourselves

[Just Sprayin]

Hey Adam, try posting the cost of my lies and spin. I can give copies of the invoices I send to Rush, Karl, and Grover if you need them.

Here's a sample:
Lies about Obama travel: $5 per post
Misdirection re: conservaitve crooks: $5 per post.
Make up stuff: $5 per post.
Verbatim cut and paste from Limbaugh Transcripts: $5 per post.

My guess: I'm a liar for hire employed by righty wingnuts. Talk amongst yourselves.

[Just Sayin]

9:17 After reading your post, I have to wonder if you deny that Obama didn't go to NYC for dinner and a show.

I know you are a kool-aide drinker, but you have to be able to separate fact from fiction.

Try to open your mind for a brief minute: The Obama's went to NYC for dinner and a show this weekend. They flew in Air Force 1. When the Prez travels, it costs big bucks.

A White House spokesman actually said "HE would have taken the shuttle, but he is not allowed to travel that way"

Now that you know the facts, please tell us how, as taxpayers in debt up to our eyeballs, with a totally bankrupt government, can afford to pay for our boy president to go whip it up in NYC for the night.

What makes it worse, he practically shut down Vegas and chids others for living the high life.

Its OK to put your rose colored glasses back on now you fool.

[Duh]

NEW YORK, May 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama, together with First Lady Michelle Obama, paid his first visit to New York City Saturday since his inauguration to enjoy some personal time away from the White House.

Local TV channel NY1 quoted official sources as saying that the first couple left Washington, D.C. in the afternoon aboard a smaller plane in the Air Force One fleet.

The couple was reportedly scheduled to see a Broadway performance of August Wilson's play "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" at the Belasco Theatre.

The play is about black America in the early 1900s, with residents of a boardinghouse recalling their migration from the sharecropping farms of the South to the industrialized North.

"I am taking my wife to New York City because I promised her during the campaign that I would take her to a Broadway show after it was all finished," the president said in a statement an aide read to the press.

[...]

It reportedly cost taxpayers $25,000 for the Obama's night out. I just hope B-Rock got a personal stimulus package after wasting that amount of our cash on Michelle.

[Just Sayin]

$25,000 Yeah right. 4 jets, helicopters, limos, 100+ Secret Service (a guess), tying up roads, bridges, airports. Loss of productivity of those nincompoops on the West Side Hwy.

It cost $25k just for the staff to plan the route.