Nothing like good old consistency. The tea partiers, who have but one issue in common, cut government spending, held a rally in Washington, D.C. back in November. Seems that little rally cost $13,600, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports:
Months later, official expense reports show that the boisterous, 10,000-person rally to rein in big government and stop runaway spending cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $14,000.
Wait, what? Well, it seems that tea party darling Rep. Michele Bachmann (MN), who spoke at the event, as well as Reps. Tom Price (GA), Todd Akin (MO) and Steve King (IA) shared the cost for the event out of their congressional allowances.
The event was carefully billed as a press conference, so as not to break congressional spending rules. As a result, most ethics experts think that the funding for the event fell just within the rules.
“Unless it’s billed as a campaign event, or campaign donations are solicited, or there’s a concerted program of endorsements for candidates based on party affiliation, I don’t think that they ran into any issues,” Stan Brand, a former general counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives, told the Star-Tribune.
Of course both parties have engaged in bending the rules — Democrats held an (significantly smaller) event just a week prior to the tea party rally to announce the health care reform bill. However, Democrats have not held an event with such a scope or as expensive as this, complete with guest stars, nor have they billed an event as a press conference, only to ignore the press and address the audience. Not to mention that audience members don’t tend to be encouraged to bring signs denouncing the other party at these events. In other words, these events don’t tend to be campaign rallies by another name.
Included in the lineup were conservative actors Jon Voight and John Ratzenberger, and radio host Mark Levin, who said Democrats “don’t know what they’re in for next November.”
Bachmann, like most of the speakers, directed her address to the crowd alone, beginning her speech with “You came! And you came to your House!” Following the speeches, the activists fanned out to find their representatives in the halls and confront them about the bill.
Most importantly, though, is how Bachmann, et al., can rail against spending taxpayer\’s money, while at the same exact time spending taxpayer money. But, I guess, nobody ever called them consistent.
Recent Comments