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Star GOP Congressman Finances Lavish Life with Taxpayer Money (Aaron Schock)
Judicial Watch ^ | March 13, 2015

Posted on 03/13/2015 10:03:13 AM PDT by jazusamo

A popular Illinois congressman once considered a rising star in the Republican party is in deep trouble for reportedly using taxpayer money to fund an extravagant lifestyle that includes stays at luxurious hotels, world travel, expensive cars and private jet rides to concerts and pro sporting events.

The lawmaker’s name is Aaron Schock and he’s only 33, but he’s a seasoned politician who should have known better than to use public funds as a personal piggy bank. For six years he’s represented a working-class district in Peoria, Illinois in the U.S. House. One national media report says he had a meteoric rise from a local school board to one of the top fundraisers in the House Republican Conference. But this month the congressman was forced to hire a “crisis communications firm” and two prominent defense attorneys. In a biting editorial, his hometown newspaper blasts him for ripping off taxpayers to fund “five-star lodging and fancy dining with celebrities across the globe, from London to Saudi Arabia to an exclusive golf course in Maryland…”

Schock also blew $40,000 from public coffers to redecorate his office, sold his home to a wealthy donor for a price well above market rate, failed to report gifts from a lavish European trip and spent more than $10,000 on a weekend getaway to New York with a few staffers, according to recent news reports. The congressman and his staff didn’t perform many official duties on the costly New York jaunt, according to a Chicago newspaper that broke the story. Instead, they schmoozed it up with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Schock shamelessly used the occasion to “raise his profile.” At least 10 Schock House staffers were on the taxpayer-funded New York trip, the story says.

It seems like every day another Schock transgression gets uncovered. At the very least he has committed a number of serious ethical lapses that should draw congressional scrutiny and negatively impact his 2016 reelection campaign. His district is solidly Republican and some conservatives are already calling for his ouster. This week a conservative news magazine called Schock a “crook” and wrote that his “penchant for taxpayer-financed luxury hotels and private aircraft” is “flatly incompatible with both his conservative rhetoric and the political presumptions of a free nation.” The lashing goes on: “If his behavior is any guide, the man believes that the people of Illinois’s 18th congressional district have hired him to serve not as a dull public servant but as their very own nationalized celebrity. They have not.”

In another hard-hitting piece, the editor of a well-known conservative Capitol Hill news site lambasts the congressman: “Rep. Aaron Schock has proven himself incapable of handling his own money, the money of his donors, and taxpayer money. He has lived excessively off the backs of taxpayers who must be reimbursed and off of donors to whom he is now a servant.” Dismissing Schock as a “celebrity” who “lack[s] the necessary integrity to handle the power of the purse,” Erickson suggested his next career move: “Perhaps Downton Abbey needs someone else to fill the role of an American playboy chasing a Crawley.”


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: 18thdistrict; corruption; ethics; illinois; jw; peoria; republican; rino; schock; ushouse
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1 posted on 03/13/2015 10:03:13 AM PDT by jazusamo
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To: jazusamo

Just what does he think he is, A democrat?


2 posted on 03/13/2015 10:04:59 AM PDT by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
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To: Jim from C-Town

It sure looks like it.


3 posted on 03/13/2015 10:08:26 AM PDT by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin....and the turkey has.)
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To: jazusamo

Is this twit a Boner Boy? I hope so.


4 posted on 03/13/2015 10:08:57 AM PDT by VRWCarea51 (The original 1998 version)
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To: jazusamo

Evidently Repubs are not immune from the Chicago Way.


5 posted on 03/13/2015 10:09:30 AM PDT by TruthWillWin (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money.)
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To: VRWCarea51
Yep, he's a RINO.

You tube: RINO Aaron Schock calls Tea Party and Ted Cruz the insane caucus

6 posted on 03/13/2015 10:13:39 AM PDT by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin....and the turkey has.)
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To: jazusamo

Gray Bar Motel time.


7 posted on 03/13/2015 10:14:45 AM PDT by moovova
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To: jazusamo

IIRC, isn’t Schock the one who is thought to be gay?


8 posted on 03/13/2015 10:14:56 AM PDT by Yashcheritsiy (It's time to repeal and replace the GOP)
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To: Yashcheritsiy
IIRC, isn’t Schock the one who is thought to be gay?

Not married, flamboyant, loves to be photographed with his shirt off and dresses like this:

You tell me.

9 posted on 03/13/2015 10:17:09 AM PDT by Pan_Yan
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To: Yashcheritsiy

I’ve seen it mentioned here on past threads.


10 posted on 03/13/2015 10:19:39 AM PDT by jazusamo (0bama to go 'full-Mussolini' after elections: Mark Levin....and the turkey has.)
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To: jazusamo

Wait, a crooked politician from Illinois?

Say it ain’t so!

/sarc


11 posted on 03/13/2015 10:20:04 AM PDT by Redbob (W.W.J.B.D.: "What Would Jack Bauer Do?")
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To: Pan_Yan

Good night, even a gaydar built in the 1950s would register that.


12 posted on 03/13/2015 10:21:16 AM PDT by Yashcheritsiy (It's time to repeal and replace the GOP)
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To: Yashcheritsiy

I live in Illinois, and I heard that Rep. Schock might be gay.
I hope he’ll lose his next primary to a conservative because he wants to give amnesty to illegal aliens.


13 posted on 03/13/2015 10:22:42 AM PDT by PhilCollins
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To: jazusamo

Name any hack in D.C. who doesn’t do the same they all are in office for the money and don’t have to work.


14 posted on 03/13/2015 10:23:17 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: Pan_Yan

Hahahahahahahahahaha!


15 posted on 03/13/2015 10:23:18 AM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (The White House is now known as "Casa Blanca".)
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To: Jim from C-Town

This narcissist frat boy needs to be cut loose, ASAP.


16 posted on 03/13/2015 10:24:13 AM PDT by RitaOK ( VIVA CRISTO REY / Public education is the farm team for more Marxists coming)
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To: Pan_Yan
Photographic evidence that Herb Tarlek did eventually tell someone the name of that pro shop on the Kentucky side of the river.

Mr. niteowl77

17 posted on 03/13/2015 10:25:07 AM PDT by niteowl77 (The five stages of Progressive persuasion: lecture, nudge, shove, apprehend, liquidate.)
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To: jazusamo

Obama?


18 posted on 03/13/2015 10:41:03 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
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To: jazusamo
"...using taxpayer money to fund an extravagant lifestyle that includes stays at luxurious hotels, world travel, expensive cars and private jet rides to concerts and pro sporting events.

He should be arrested for impersonating Moochie Obama.


19 posted on 03/13/2015 10:51:44 AM PDT by Iron Munro
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To: jazusamo

A career politician at age 33? I would be shocked if he wasn’t a crook.


20 posted on 03/13/2015 10:52:14 AM PDT by RightOnTheBorder
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