Posted on 02/13/2011 9:59:03 AM PST by OldDeckHand
Even though barrels of ink have been affectionately spilled about all of those House members sleeping in their Capitol offices in order to save money, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is none too happy about the trend. CREW has asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to look into whether the office sleepovers violate tax laws by not being reported as a taxable fringe benefit.
“House office buildings are not dorms or frat houses,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. “If members didn’t want to find housing in Washington, they shouldn’t have run for Congress in the first place.”
CREW provides its latest tally of House members known to sleep in their offices:
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Yeah, these new Tea Party types need to pay for their sleeping quarters the old-fashioned way - by getting someone else to pay for it.
The commie ‘RATS were embarrassed about this back in the 90s when the large GOP freshmen class did the same thing. They whined about it then too.
You know, there’s some people you can’t please no matter what you do.
YEP....”those people” are called ..... Democrats.
Is this the best they can do? I really, really hope they make a major issue out of this in 2012.
You know, my first impulse after reading the opening paragraph was to check to see if this was from The Onion. I am really beginning to have problems with some of these articles because I am sure that they are jokes and it turns out they are not. It happens at least once a day now. Either my funny bone is broken or the democrats are getting ridiculous.
Sorry, I reread what I just wrote and the answer is clear. We live in Upsidedowninsideout world now and will until this nation can replace these 2year olds in adult bodies with actual thinking, logical adults.
how ridiculous
> YEP....”those people” are called ..... Democrats.
I ain’t surprised.
But you can call them what you want.
I prefer to call them DemonRATS.
:)
There is a REASON whay we call them Dummies.
Well, I am going to play devil’s advocate here. Although the listed congresspeople are predominantly republican, what benefit is gained by them sleeping in their offices? Do they get free food beyond that which is normally provided during working ours? Does it increase the cost of cleanup, extra services, etc.? Dry cleaning? If so, then why not nail em for the taxable benefit. It is stuff like this that might “encourage” Congress to “correct” the tax laws in this area, since us “commoners” are taxed according to the same crap. But my argument is based on the premise that there may be extra costs incurred on us taxpayers because they sleepover in offices. If not, then nevermind.
Didn’t the leftist MSM recently crap their pants about some Republican congressmen living in a boarding house run by some church? Gee, I wonder how come they were never upset about Bawney Fwank living in a homo whorehouse?
He's dead, Jim.
I can't think of any additional costs beyond the electric bill. But, whatever additional electric power that would be used, would be so negligible that it's insignificance is probably beyond measure.
This is just petty ridiculousness.
IIRC, when your employer (us) provides you a place to stay for the convenience of the employer, it is not taxable.
Let them remember they are there to work and they live in their districts.
Might cut down on the incidence of beltway fever a little.
I think you're referring to the apartment building/boarding house that is owned & operated by The Family, a Christian organization on Capital Hill. Yes, they (the leftists) make noise about it all the time.
Since I started on this side of the argument, I will continue it from here. The soldier comment does not need a response as it is way out there. The employer (taxpayers) provides them a place to work, not stay.
Anyone out there know how the expenses are handled when the congresspeeps head to DC for weeks at a time and do NOT sleep in the office?
I searched one site and it had a list of perks for these dudes and dudesses.
Free parking: Not only do members of Congress receive parking on Capitol Hill, but they also receive free (prime) private parking spots at the two nearby airport, Reagan National and Dulles airport.
Exemptions and immunities from tax, pension, and other laws that burden private citizens — all crafted by lawmakers themselves.
An office staff that performs “constituent services” and doles out pork-barrel spending, providing more opportunities for “favors” that can be returned only at election time.
Perks from Lobbyists: Despite a slew of ethics regulations regarding gifts from lobbyists, Members of Congress are still able to use their lobbyist ties to get into events that regular people simply do not have access to. For example, if a Member of Congress wanted a prime ticket to a sold-out event, he could still get that ticket from lobbyists he’s close with, as long as the face value of the ticket is reimbursed by the Member. However, this money doesn’t have to come from the Member’s pocket, but instead can come from the usually deep campaign account, which usually contains money from lobbyists and their associated PACs.
Days Off: While most Americans get one day off for Memorial Day and sometimes Presidents Day, members of Congress get the entire week off. However, Congress doesn’t like to call these vacation days, but instead call them “District Work Periods,” even though there is nothing requiring them to be in their district during those times. Congress also gets a number of additional recesses, some lasting as long as a month.
Now I know that these do not get into all the possible benefits of sleepovers, but I am continuing to look.
Here’s a link to a WSJ article about all this.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559504575630661395762460.html
It has a lot of good information. I have no further comments on this topic. I knew from the begining it sounded like a rat hit piece, but this seems to support that notion even more.
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