Remember when the old Reform Party used to rail against the “pigs at the trough”? Those were the days! Now you can't hear the railing for the oinking. As it turns out, our ruling elites have changed little over the years — they are better than you and I and they deserve a better class of things. We are called upon to pay for it.
Take the case of one Senator, called out for claiming reimbursement for a breakfast when on an international flight on which breakfast was served as a part of the price of the flight (no word on whether this was in economy or not, but I'll leave that for you to guess). Confronted with this difference — one of many accumulated in this senator's particular audit — the response was something out of Upstairs Downstairs. “Ice cold Camembert and broken crackers...nobody can be expected to eat that!”
That's one line item on one senator's questioned expenses. There are dozens more senators who have racked up tens of thousands of dollars in questionable expenses over the years, all the while pulling in salaries that far outstrip yours and mine. While even taken together these amounts are probably a drop in the bucket of government spending, it just feels wrong to be paying for the luxury.
Don't get me wrong on luxury: I probably appreciate it as much as the next person, but when I indulge myself, I am generally paying for it from the salary I already receive, not claiming it as an expense. Perhaps I am training to be a senator so that I can ask taxpayers to cover that cost while getting a raise at the same time?
Further reading here.
The public “trough” hides
behind crowds of those who are
just more entitled
behind crowds of those who are
just more entitled
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