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What Would You Drive, if the Taxpayers Paid?
NY Times ^ | May 1, 2008 | RAYMOND HERNANDEZ

Posted on 04/30/2008 11:06:48 PM PDT by neverdem

Representative Anthony D. Weiner, Democrat of Brooklyn and Queens, drives a 2008 Chevrolet Impala, leased for $219 a month. Representative Michael R. McNulty, a Democrat from the Albany area, gets around in a 2007 Mercury Mariner hybrid, a sport utility vehicle, for $816 a month.

“It gets a little better than 25 miles a gallon,” Mr. McNulty said.

Charles B. Rangel, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, is not so caught up in the question of gas mileage. He leases a 2004 Cadillac DeVille for $777.54 a month. The car is 17 feet long with a 300-horsepower engine and seats five comfortably.

“It’s one of the bigger Cadillacs,” Mr. Rangel, of Harlem, said cheerfully this week. “I’ve got a desk in it. It’s like an airplane.”

Modest or more luxurious, the cars are all paid for by taxpayers. The use of a car — gas included — is one of the benefits of being a member of the House of Representatives.

There are few restrictions on what kind of car the members can choose, and there is no limit on how much they can spend. But the benefit can be politically sensitive, given the growing concerns about automobile emissions and an economy that has left many people struggling to pay for the rapidly rising cost of gas, which was...

--snip--

Members have found themselves under fire in their districts for what their constituents may regard as extravagant tastes or for leasing foreign cars. Before the 2006 election, one Ithaca resident denounced Representative Maurice D. Hinchey’s lease of a BMW 530i to The Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, saying that Mr. Hinchey, a Democrat, “sticks it to” the taxpayers and American workers. (Mr. Hinchey also leases a 2007 Nissan Altima for $200 a month for his chief of staff.)...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: representative; representatives
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To: Revolting cat!

61 posted on 05/01/2008 12:47:42 PM PDT by Hatteras
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To: Congressman Billybob

Check if your opponent is in on this scam.


62 posted on 05/01/2008 7:49:40 PM PDT by neverdem (I'm praying for a Divine Intervention.)
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To: neb52
"...SUVs don’t roll over anymore than any other car I have seen..."

There are nearly 50,000 references at Google for "SUV-guardrail". Also, from the book: The High and the Mighty:

"Most guardrails have a standard height that stops cars well but just happens to be perfect for making runaway SUVs flip over and crush their occupants."—http://www.powells.com/review/2003_01_16.html

"...Do you not know the term “rolling with my homies”...?"

I had to look it up: 'guessing a reference to carpooling?

63 posted on 05/02/2008 3:19:55 AM PDT by Does so (...against all enemies, DOMESTIC and foreign...)
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