advertisement to tell us how he's against earmarks and standing up for Minnesota's working families. I guess Kline doesn't consider a couple of hundred thousand dollars of taxpayers money paying for his self-promotion as 'pork'!?Rep. Kline should take his own advice and not waste taxpayer's money..."[Kline] strongly opposes" wasting tax dollars "at a time when so many of our neighbors are struggling". So is it okay to waste taxpayer's money when it goes to his self promotion?
The four full color pages were labled has a 'report on the economy from Congressman John Kline" but 3/4 of the 'report' was pictures and graphics unrelated to the economy. This 'report' was meant to be a soft promotional piece used in campaigns.
Kline says "we should expect our government to do the same thing" as families that have to cut costs and make sacrifices...so how about it Kline?...You stop using taxpayer money for your self promotion! That's a load of
1 comment:
WARNING : Operational expenses for Congress may increase.
FYI : A May 9th Roll Call story - The House wants to increase Members’ office budgets next fiscal year by almost 15 percent, partly because 2010 is an election year and lawmakers anticipate a surge in franked mail.
The story is behind a firewall, but it’s $90 million !
The Roll Call article lists a proposed 80 percent increase in franked mail costs due to extra mail sent by members to constituents in an election year.
Members are not allowed to use the franked mail privilege for campaign purposes, and House officials say they were simply pointing out that in the second year of a congressional term, more legislation makes its way through the process and more press releases highlighting members' successes are sent.
= = =
Regarding Franking, it must be remembered that it is part of each Member's Representational Allowance. House members get a budget and can spend it as they see fit (including tele-town hall meetings) … they cannot go over budget as it comes out of their personal funds. In 2005, $53,117 was the average spent for Franking with the highest amount being $120,817. When Second District voters hear John Kline complain about earmarks they need to remind him of his 509,784 pieces of franked mail that he sent out in 2005 and question why his MRA spending was in excess of 96% of the maximum budgetary amount. A true fiscal hawk would find ways to trim his own budget ... like Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) who did without $518,036 of his MRA. Leadership begins by example but then again Congressman Goode was defeated last November and Kline may be learning by example.
FYI : In 2007, First District Congressman Tim Walz (D) returned approximately $100,000 in unspent funds from his 2007 MRA to the U.S. Treasury - roughly 7% of his budget.
Getting information on how much each Congressional office spends has not been easy … but Speaker Pelosi has instructed that information be available online.
FYI : According to the rules about congressional mass mailings, personal references are limited to an average of eight per page. Now, you know why it was four pages ... are you willing to bet that Kline's name is mentioned 32 times ?
Second question : Did every voter get a mailing ? Or did some voters get different mailings ? Target marketing shapes the message ... a rural voter may get one mailer while an urban voter may get another ... while some precincts that did not support Kline in the past year may not get any.
Post a Comment