Nancy Pelosi spent $16,000 on flowers alone as well as spending $3 million in her first nine months in office compared to Hastert's $1.8 million in the same time frame in 2006.
Of course, according to Pelosi's spokesman Nadeam Elshami, making comparisons simply isn't fair!!!!
Next time you hear them claim any sort of "fiscal responsibility", keep a few of these figures in mind while you fall over laughing.
While Hastert didn’t appear to spend any money on flowers last year, bouquets are not new to Pelosi’s office. She spent about $5,000 on flowers last year when she was minority leader.
[...]
Pelosi has more people working for her. Hastert employed 35 people during the third quarter of last year. Pelosi, by contrast, had 51 people on her payroll during the same time period.
[...]
Another factor in the disparity is travel. Hastert didn’t bill much official travel last year, spending only about $1,700, while Pelosi racked up many times that at nearly $60,000 — a figure that does not include her “congressional delegation” journeys to Europe and the Middle East. It does, however, include many visits to congressional districts.
[...]• A $10,000 contract to former Clinton White House speechwriter Heather Hurlburt to write the speech Pelosi delivered to the Israeli Knesset.
• Nearly $20,000 to Washington attorney Richard Meltzer to help with Pelosi’s transition. “Just like a presidential transition, Richard Meltzer was hired to oversee the historic changeover of Congress,” Elshami said.
Elshami's pathetic excuses include:
“As the first Democratic Speaker in 12 years, there was a responsibility to the American people and the Democratic Caucus to hit the ground running and to pass the New Direction agenda,” Elshami said. “To achieve this goal, more resources were needed, including the hiring of additional staff in policy and research areas, for example.”
Then he adds the first "woman" speaker of the house in his next excuse:
“As the first woman Speaker of the House and first Democratic Speaker in 12 years, there continues to be a demand for her to travel across the country to appear in congressional districts with members, to meet with local press and editorial boards, and to meet with representatives of the private sector,” Elshami said.
Is he saying that because she is a woman, she is required to spend more? Why even mention the fact that she is a woman at all in this instance?
Now, here is something interesting:
If those accounts are factored in, Pelosi’s spending increased 52 percent, and Boehner’s spending increased 12 percent.
But later in the article it tells us:
“Mr. Boehner handles the office books the same way he’d like to see the federal budget administered, which is why he returned to the Treasury roughly $1 million from FY06 and is on track to best that number for FY07,” Kennedy said. “Any modest increase in expenditures this year over last reflects the additional responsibilities he assumed as the highest-ranking Republican in the House.”
So Boehner returns monies and Pelosi just spends more without thought.
No wonder they don't understand that they can reduce spending to make up the monies for the AMT patch and they only consider raising taxes....reducing spending and Democratic politicians are two contradictary terms, obviously.
Then again...comparisons aren't fair if they don't look good for Democrats:
Under that calculation, Republicans spent 18 percent less than they did last year while Democrats’ spending rose 4 percent over last year. Democrats, however, say that is not a legitimate comparison.
What a riot.
We have paid %16,000 for flowers and we don't even get any?
She should be required to give US flowers before screwing us.
.