Give the public a peek into Congress’ spending habits

Give the public a peek into Congress’ spending habits

In Great Britain, Parliament is being shaken to its core by a scandal over members of the legislature enriching themselves through loopholes designed to acknowledge the additional housing costs that come with living one place and working in another.

Greedy ministers were found to have used various methods to double dip; some claimed expenses for improvements that were needed for no reason other than to flip the properties, make a profit and then start over again. The most celebrate case involved a member who charged the government for the dredging of the moat at his country house.

As the scandal evolved, Michael Martin, the speaker of the House of Commons and the most high profile opponent of releasing the embarrassing financial records, resigned, the first man to be ousted from that job since 1695. Almost a dozen other ministers have also resigned.

Meanwhile, on this side of the pond, where very few members of Congress have moats that need dredging, The Wall Street Journal has managed to uncover abuses that are unlikely to cost any member of Congress their jobs — at least until the next election. American voters have every reason to be outraged at some of the abuses that the Journal reported.

Pay and perks

Members of the United States Congress receive a handsome base pay of $174,000. There are bonuses for leadership positions. And they all receive excellent health coverage and pension plans that are far beyond those available to their constituents. They also receive an allowance of between $1.3 million and $1.9 million to cover “official and representational expenses,” and some of the claims uncovered by the Journal are eye-popping.

While most taxpayers aren’t driving cars worth $25,000, Rep. Alcee Hastings of Florida spent $24,730 last year to lease a 2008 Lexus hybrid sedan. Not far behind Hastings was Rep. Rodney Alexander of Louisiana, who paid $20,000 for a 2009 lease on a Toyota Highlander hybrid for use on official business by his state director. We have to wonder who’s negotiating these leases. Are those really the best deals they could have gotten, or do they care less because it isn’t their money they’re spending?

Likewise, Ohio Rep. Michael Turner apparently felt comfortable paying $1,435 for a digital camera; Eni Faleomavaega, the House delegate from American Samoa, bought two 46-inch Sony TVs at $1,473 each and one Pennsylvania lawmaker spent $22 for a Liz Claiborne cell phone case (we bet if he were paying for it, it would have been generic and maybe half the cost).

All these expenditures are perfectly legal — and, who knows, maybe there’s a reason a congressman needs a $1,400 camera, or former Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana needed a top-of-the line, $2,793 laptop rather than something more pedestrian.

But here’s a thought: Since much of the money congressmen are spending is on high-tech stuff, why don’t they take a real leap into the digital age? They could put their office expenses on-line so that anyone can read the reports. Wall Street Journal reporters had to pore through tens of thousands of pages looking for those nuggets they found, and who knows what they might have missed.

We suspect that if members of Congress knew that their constituents were looking over their shoulders, fewer of them would be rushing to spend the last dollar in their accounts at year’s end. A lot more would be like John Boehner, the Ohio Republican who is the House minority leader. He set an example by leaving $228,000 unspent in 2008.