[tuckrdout]

Would like a link to the video, a transcript of the show, or perhaps one of you watched the show and saw the name of this specific expense account Bolling mentioned.

Thanks so much.

[bamagirl1944]

He actually had printouts of all their expenditures. That info is probably available online.

[deks]

This Wall Street Journal article from June 1, 2009, talks about it...

Lawmakers Keep Expenses Off-Line

Lawmakers have demanded greater openness from companies receiving government bailouts but have yet to release online or electronic versions of their own office expenditures -- including taxpayer-funded tabs for leased cars and staff retreats at hotels.

House and Senate lawmakers are given an annual allowance of $1.3 million to $4.5 million to run their offices. Most is spent on staff salaries, but money is also used for official equipment, office supplies and travel.

The House and Senate say they are considering making lawmakers' spending records available in electronic form. Currently, the information is published only in printed volumes.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124381530535870685.html#mod=rss_US_News

[deks]

Congressional Expense Reports Slowly Move Online from Dusty Basement
By Laurel Adams | August 27, 2010, 12:40 pm

The House of Representatives took a step toward greater government transparency last year by posting its expense reports online, but the clunky PDF format makes it difficult to compare lawmakers’ outlays or to pinpoint exactly how the money is spent. The Senate, on the other hand, is moving at a glacial pace and has yet to offer details about its plan to start publishing expense reports online in 2011.

Each U.S. lawmaker gets an annual allowance of between $1.3 million and $4.5 million to operate their offices, pay staff, buy equipment and supplies, and pay for travel. The amount varies according to whether a lawmaker is a member of the House or Senate, and how far away his or her home state is from Washington.

In June 2009, following an outcry in Britain over Parliamentarians’ expenses, Speaker Nancy Pelosi ordered the House chief administrative officer to begin publishing the chamber’s expense reports online. The so-called Statement of Disbursements is a quarterly document that captures spending by House lawmakers and staff in three volumes totaling some 3,000 pages.

But now that it’s online, the House spending data is still difficult for taxpayers to analyze because of inconsistencies in how individual lawmakers report where the money went and the PDF format used to present the data.

http://www.publicintegrity.org/data_mine/entry/2370/