Posted on 12/21/2009 7:13:17 AM PST by Cheap_Hessian
U.S. taxpayers are spending more than $40,000 per month on office space, staff, cell phones and a leased SUV for former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, even as he works as a lobbyist for private corporations and foreign governments.
The payments are perfectly legal under a federal law that provides five years of benefits for former speakers — but only if Hastert never makes use of his government-funded perks in the course of his lobbying work. Ethics experts say that sort of separation is hard to maintain.
Hastert “has to be meticulous in his schedule to make sure there is no bleed from his publicly subsidized office into his private practice,” said Kenneth Gross, a former Federal Election Commission general counsel and congressional ethics authority. Steve Ellis, vice president of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, called the arrangement “really concerning.”
“It is specifically prohibited — federal dollars can’t be spent on lobbying operations,” Ellis said. “We are paying for his staff [and] for a car, and we need to be very sure that he isn’t spending a dime of that money on lobbying operations. “That all needs to be above board, in the clear and transparent. And it’s not.”
Hastert declined to discuss the situation with POLITICO.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
He sure got out of Congress when the getting was good!
I would agree with EXCEPT that Dennis is a K street lobbyist!
Just wait till Nanzi get a hold of her own office,
it will probably include a 747...
And that was the day I no longer considered myself a Republican. I consider myself an anti-Democrat.
Five years? I'm surprised it isn't life. I suspect congress will address this error soon enough. Clearly they have nothing to worry about as no one will do anything about it.
Buy him a cell phone.....and publish the number!
95% of these people are flippin worthless..........
A men!!
Get a rope.
America -- a great idea, didn't last.
AMEND
OOOPS.. drop the D
AMEN
I have a question??
Does anyone know just how much the Federal Government collects a year in Taxes (an average) they spend like there is NO end,
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