John Boehner who is second in line to the Presidency, espouses fiscal frugality, however when he first stepped into power as the House Speaker in January, he not only expanded his staff and his own paycheck, he more than doubled the expense account check he cashes each and every month.
Congress sets aside $235,000 per year to cover expense of House and Senate leaders, but Boehner is the only member of the House to accept this cash and in direct payments each month.
Roll Call reports:
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) generally used the expense account to pay for meals or ceremonial events; the expense payments were not made out to her directly. Since she became Minority Leader in January, there is no record of any leadership expense-account payments from her office.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who served as Minority Whip in the 111th Congress, doesn’t use the account at all. Nor does Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn (D-S.C.), who served as Majority Whip in the last Congress, their offices said in March.
Democrat Steny Hoyer has not accepted payment since last February because he decided, “the appropriate thing to do was to stop receiving it.”
But, in Boehner’s case a spokesman said, “This money is used in appropriate ways for expenses related to his official duties.” While the House asks the American middle class to sacrifice, John Boehner does not. There has been no effort to trim expenses from the House whatsoever.
John Boehner’s salary is $223,500 annually and adding to that is his hefty expense account, totaling an extra $30,000.
On the other hand, Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell used their expense accounts to cover “supplies and materials.”
Fiscally Conservative Tea Partiers have already made noises toward the House Speaker, but this should make their blood boil. Add to this, that Boehner promised jobs to be ‘priority one’ with not one result. Frugality must be defined by him as the taxpayers spending more to keep him in a lifestyle most of us can not afford.
Yesterday Boehner challenged President Obama to “seize the moment” and help solve America’s significant money troubles to create jobs and turn the economy around.
While Obama lowered taxes, Boehner is spending them on himself, without being a role model as another American sacrificing for the good of this country.
But, damn, those seniors should get vouchers instead of Medicare because that’s the John Boehner way to keep spending down. Meanwhile Boehner falsely labeled money in the Health Care bill as, “slush funds” but his funds seem more appropriately, slushy.
Many thanks to Roll Call
