• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

Congressional perks

Texan

Well-known member
This issue is really disgusting to me. Just one more case where they don't have to live like the regular people. At the very least, they should be forced to drive the cheapest and most economical American-made cars available.

This should be a non-partisan issue for all of us. I don't care if they are Republicans or Democrats, they should have to provide their own transportation and perks. :???:

======================================

House members lease cars; taxpayers pay
Congressional perks, high gas prices add up

By Matthew Spina NEWS STAFF REPORTER

Updated: 05/04/08 7:02 AM


Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds’ Mercury Mountaineer stands 6 feet high and extends 16 feet stem to stern. It chugs along at 13 miles a gallon in the city, 18 to 20 on the highway. He leases it for $500 a month.

Or, rather, taxpayers lease it for $500 a month.

For $411 a month, taxpayers lease Rep. Brian Higgins a similarly sized Ford Explorer rated at 13 to 14 miles a gallon in the city, 18 to 20 on the highway.

For $808 a month, they lease Rep. Louise M. Slaughter a 2007 Buick Lucerne, a luxury sedan that can deliver 15 to 17 miles a gallon in the city, 23 to 26 on the highway.

Gas prices leaping to $4 a gallon have driven up the cost to fill a grocery cart, among other things. Consumers and builders are heeding the cry to save energy. But dozens of members of Congress ride in some gas-guzzling vehicles, which they select at public expense.

“We are kind of a sad big country sometimes,” said Robert Ciesielski, who heads the Sierra Club in Western New York and believes the government long ago should have turned serious about renewable sources of energy. “We could be doing so much, and instead, we wait for the next big price increase.”

What kind of example are House members setting?

“A poor example,” said Ciesielski, who just bought himself a Hyundai Elantra. It releases in a year about half of the carbon dioxide of Reynolds’ Mountaineer or Higgins’ Explorer.

If they want a car made by an American company, how about the Ford Focus, Ciesielski said, if not a hybrid?

Under House rules, members can obtain any vehicle they want at taxpayer expense and chalk it up to the cost to run an office. Gas, insurance, maintenance — taxpayers provide it all. U. S. senators don’t get such a perk, but House members do, and about three in 10 take it. Some even take more than one vehicle.

“Like every American, I can obviously do much, much better,” Higgins said this week, explaining that at the start of his second term he asked his staff to find him a sturdy auto at a reasonable rate, one that will hold up as he drives the 89-mile length of his district.

“But that was in the days of pre-$3 gasoline,” the Buffalo Democrat said. “Clearly I can do much better.”

Some members do.

Rep. Michael R. McNulty, D-Albany, leases a hybrid Mercury Mariner, but at a monthly cost of $816. That’s why Higgins doesn’t favor a ceiling on how much members spend on their cars. He figures they will spend more as they turn to hybrids that burn less gas.

Higgins was the only House member from Western New York to speak with The Buffalo News about the vehicles they select. A Washington aide to Reynolds wanted assurances he would be asked the same questions as the others. But Reynolds, a Republican from Clarence who will not seek re-election this year, never returned the call. Nor did Slaughter return messages left with an aide Friday and Saturday.

Slaughter, a Democrat from Fairport, told the New York Times in an article this week that she didn’t take a car until 2002, when her district was redrawn to hug blustery Lake Ontario. It had good traction and a satellite tracking system, she said.

“I figured if I got stuck in a snow bank people could find me,” she told the Times. “If I’m in an accident, they might be able to find me and not wait until the thaw.”

The Times mentioned other cars driven by members in the metropolitan area: Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, D-Queens, leases a Lexus for $998 a month; Rep. Charles Rangel takes a 2004 Cadillac DeVille for $778 a month; Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Middletown, leases a BMW 530i for $500 a month and a Nissan Altima for his chief of staff for $200 a month.

The vehicles are supposed to be for official business only. But it’s difficult to determine if members indeed use their vehicles only for job-related duties.

The National Taxpayers Union in Alexandria, Va., has found House members paying more for cars than most consumers would pay for the same vehicle, perhaps because the politicians tend to lease in two-year increments to match their two-year terms in office. An Internet search turned up better rates for a Lucerne than Slaughter’s $808.

“If members of Congress want to behave as if they are CEOs or high-level business managers, why aren’t they shopping around the same way a manager would be expected to do at a firm?” asked Pete Sepp, the taxpayers union’s vice president for policy and communications. “Even well-paying firms have limits on how much you can plow into your perks of office. And here we are not seeing any limits.”

The House in 2007 approved a rule requiring members to lease “low greenhouse-gas emitting vehicles” at the urging of Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, DMo., who drives a car that runs on cooking oil. Higgins says he voted for the rule. But the House turned to the Environmental Protection Agency to provide a list of acceptable vehicles. The list, reportedly, has yet to materialize.

Why don’t members of Congress drive simple cars provided by the General Services Administration?

“There have been discussions about it,” said Sepp. “I think that it has more to do with legislative-branch arrogance than anything else. They don’t want to be told how to run their own affairs. They have their own pensions, their own personnel policies, their own police and so on.”

The salary for rank-and-file members of the House and Senate is $169,300 this year. Taxpayers subsidize meals at their cafeterias, haircuts and memberships at their special fitness clubs. They can zip into free parking spots near the terminals at Washington’s airports.

Some federal representatives probably know the shock of paying for their own gas these days. Higgins says he fills his wife’s minivan and the personal auto he drives when in Washington.

But does the average House member really know what working people go through?

“No. They don’t know,” said Rosa Gibson, who deals with Buffalo poverty, particularly on the East Side, through the Community Action Information Center she runs.

“They should take their own money and gas up at their own expense,” said Gibson, who uses her own wallet to fill her Buick Regal 99, which she uses to deliver food to shut-ins.

“We as taxpayers should hold them accountable and let them know we are fed up,” she said. “We have had enough.”



http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/338509.html
 

fff

Well-known member
What do you care what they do with their office money? They get X number of dollars to run their office. They can spend it on cars, staff, or whatever they want and only about three out of ten do so! What difference does it make to you? If BUSH's EPA would get their act together and put out a list of recommended cars, Congressmen would have something to work with. But nooooooo, they don't want to do anything to might conflict with big business.
 
A

Anonymous

Guest
“We as taxpayers should hold them accountable and let them know we are fed up,” she said. “We have had enough.”

I agree Texan-- but without the big fancy cars and taxpayer paid for gas they wouldn't be able to afford to sport their girlfriends around in the style they have become accustomed to...... :wink:

These taxpayer paid trips all over the world for research are getting to be a crock too...Funny how they always include some research that needs to be done at a world famous beach resort, golf course, or ski lodge :roll: .....
 

fff

Well-known member
Texan said:
fff said:
What do you care what they do with their office money?
Yeah, that's right, ff. Why the hell should we care? :???:

If you're saying they shouldn't get money to run their offices, that's ridiculous. The local sheriff get's money to run his office. The local judge gets money to run his office. Why wouldn't an elected member of the US House of Representatives get money to run his office? Now if he wants to spend that money on a car instead of an additional staff member, why do you care?
 

Texan

Well-known member
fff said:
If you're saying they shouldn't get money to run their offices, that's ridiculous. The local sheriff get's money to run his office. The local judge gets money to run his office. Why wouldn't an elected member of the US House of Representatives get money to run his office? Now if he wants to spend that money on a car instead of an additional staff member, why do you care?
Why do you only worry about how much money government spends when it's the Republicans doing the spending? Now that Nancy's in charge, everything is just fine with you? :???:
 

fff

Well-known member
Texan said:
fff said:
If you're saying they shouldn't get money to run their offices, that's ridiculous. The local sheriff get's money to run his office. The local judge gets money to run his office. Why wouldn't an elected member of the US House of Representatives get money to run his office? Now if he wants to spend that money on a car instead of an additional staff member, why do you care?
Why do you only worry about how much money government spends when it's the Republicans doing the spending? Now that Nancy's in charge, everything is just fine with you? :???:

I'm not the one worrying about government spending in this thread. You're the one playing "ain't it awful." I've never had a problem with government spending. It costs money to run the country. I just want spending of taxpayer dollars to benefit the US and our citizens, not Iraq and Bush's croneys.

Things have definitely been better this year, but everything won't be fine until we get enough Democrats in the House to actually get some work done. I think that's likely to be January 2009.
 

Texan

Well-known member
fff said:
I'm not the one worrying about government spending in this thread. You're the one playing "ain't it awful." I've never had a problem with government spending. It costs money to run the country....

You're damn right, I'm worried about spending in this thread. I've been worried about spending for years. I'm one who has advocated government living within it's means - like the rest of us have to do. I'm one who has said that President Bush needs to leave his freakin' checkbook at home when he goes to foreign countries. I'm one who has said that I wouldn't object to paying my part of a "War Tax" to provide extra money for that important effort. I don't just support the war with my mouth - I'm willing to pay for it out of my pocket, too.

But it's funny to me how YOU change your story about being concerned with spending when it's convenient for you to bash Republicans. It was just a few hours ago that you SEEMED to be worried about spending:

fff said:
Yep, who would have thought the Democrats would be the fiscally responsible party to get us out of the financial hole the Republicans have driven us into? Now that we know Republicans are not to be trusted with the nation's pocketbook....

http://ranchers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=279665#279665


So...either you care about spending all of the time or you just care about spending if the Republicans are doing it? Which is it? :???:
 

fff

Well-known member
Texan said:
fff said:
I'm not the one worrying about government spending in this thread. You're the one playing "ain't it awful." I've never had a problem with government spending. It costs money to run the country....

You're damn right, I'm worried about spending in this thread. I've been worried about spending for years. I'm one who has advocated government living within it's means - like the rest of us have to do. I'm one who has said that President Bush needs to leave his freakin' checkbook at home when he goes to foreign countries. I'm one who has said that I wouldn't object to paying my part of a "War Tax" to provide extra money for that important effort. I don't just support the war with my mouth - I'm willing to pay for it out of my pocket, too.

But it's funny to me how YOU change your story about being concerned with spending when it's convenient for you to bash Republicans. It was just a few hours ago that you SEEMED to be worried about spending:

fff said:
Yep, who would have thought the Democrats would be the fiscally responsible party to get us out of the financial hole the Republicans have driven us into? Now that we know Republicans are not to be trusted with the nation's pocketbook....

http://ranchers.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=279665#279665


So...either you care about spending all of the time or you just care about spending if the Republicans are doing it? Which is it? :???:

I've said very clearly that I have no problem with the government spending money. It costs to run a country. But I do have a problem with the way the Bush Administration and Republican Congress have wasted our money the last seven years. Show me some, any benefit, from the billions and billions of US money that have been spent in Iraq.
 

Chuck

Active member
fff said:
If BUSH's EPA would get their act together and put out a list of recommended cars, Congressmen would have something to work with. .
Forget the EPA list. Are you saying that a United States Congressman is not smart enough to choose an automobile that is relatively fuel efficient without handholding from EPA bureaucrats?
If they can't be bothered,they could use a little of that "office" money to pay a staffer for an hour or two of research on the internet to gin up a short list of possibles. My Mom drives a Ford Escape. It's a great car. All wheel drive, lots of power,options out the wazoo,seats 5 no problem. 26 mpg on the highway at 70-75 mph. She somehow knew,without help from any government agency,that it would get better mileage than if she chose an Expedition,Excursion,or a Navigator. But my Mom isn't a Congressman,so she's capable of deciding which car to buy on her own. Of course,she also pays for the car and buys the fuel to put in it. Hmm.

"It's like an airplane." Indeed. :lol:
 

Texan

Well-known member
fff said:
I've said very clearly that I have no problem with the government spending money. It costs to run a country. But I do have a problem with the way the Bush Administration and Republican Congress have wasted our money the last seven years.

If you had been paying attention, you would know that the conservatives here have a problem with that, too. The big difference is that you think everything is okay as long as it's the Democrats that blow our money.
 

Texan

Well-known member
Chuck said:
fff said:
If BUSH's EPA would get their act together and put out a list of recommended cars, Congressmen would have something to work with. .
Forget the EPA list. Are you saying that a United States Congressman is not smart enough to choose an automobile that is relatively fuel efficient without handholding from EPA bureaucrats?
If they can't be bothered,they could use a little of that "office" money to pay a staffer for an hour or two of research on the internet to gin up a short list of possibles. My Mom drives a Ford Escape. It's a great car. All wheel drive, lots of power,options out the wazoo,seats 5 no problem. 26 mpg on the highway at 70-75 mph. She somehow knew,without help from any government agency,that it would get better mileage than if she chose an Expedition,Excursion,or a Navigator. But my Mom isn't a Congressman,so she's capable of deciding which car to buy on her own. Of course,she also pays for the car and buys the fuel to put in it. Hmm.

"It's like an airplane." Indeed. :lol:

But, but, but....Bush hasn't put out the list yet. It's Bush's fault. Good post, Chuck. :lol:
 

fff

Well-known member
Texan said:
fff said:
I've said very clearly that I have no problem with the government spending money. It costs to run a country. But I do have a problem with the way the Bush Administration and Republican Congress have wasted our money the last seven years.

If you had been paying attention, you would know that the conservatives here have a problem with that, too. The big difference is that you think everything is okay as long as it's the Democrats that blow our money.

You poor, poor person. You can't win an argument, so you just make up stuff. :lol:
 

Larrry

Well-known member
get their act together and put out a list of recommended cars
And to think fff votes when he can't even figure out what car to buy. If a congressman can't figure out what to drive on his own he has no business whatsoever in Congress or even voting.




get their act together and put out a list of recommended cars
Well keep it up maybe you can even get the gov to wipe your rear for you.


Personal responsibility
 

hopalong

Well-known member
Larrry said:
get their act together and put out a list of recommended cars
And to think fff votes when he can't even figure out what car to buy. If a congressman can't figure out what to drive on his own he has no business whatsoever in Congress or even voting.




get their act together and put out a list of recommended cars
Well keep it up maybe you can even get the gov to wipe your rear for you.


Personal responsibility

I :heart: it.
Looks like someone else recognizes just how far left fff has drifted. :D :D :D
 

Texan

Well-known member
fff said:
Texan said:
fff said:
I've said very clearly that I have no problem with the government spending money. It costs to run a country. But I do have a problem with the way the Bush Administration and Republican Congress have wasted our money the last seven years.

If you had been paying attention, you would know that the conservatives here have a problem with that, too. The big difference is that you think everything is okay as long as it's the Democrats that blow our money.

You poor, poor person. You can't win an argument, so you just make up stuff. :lol:
I didn't have to make up anything - your posts speak for themselves. :lol:

Further....I'm not a "poor, poor person." In fact, I think I'm the richest guy in the world.

Happy Mother's Day, ff. :wink:
 
Top