And they want to raise taxes!

I never will either. DO theyhave Starbucks delivery?

Sadly the amount of money politicians make they don't have to care about how much they spend. They are used to lifestyle most of us will never be able to phantom. If I made 200k a year a $10 brownie wouldn't mean squat to me either, even better if it was on the tax payors dollar then why not. That's the fool thing about government the ones with all the money run all the big companies and get voted into office make all the rules and laws while the people that got them to where they are get the short end of the stick.

Well now, let's not focus on that.. just keep yelling about how evil republicans want to give tax breaks to the mega rich.. Say it enough times and everyone will believe it!! Cut back on government waste! Or any cadillac benefits!!

It is sad what they pay, and then they are always claiming they are Broke, and need to raise taxes for something never stopping to think of the small people, or their own kind who are not paying their fair share of taxes. It is amazing how many people when they are caught who make big money owing on Taxes, they owe in the 100s of thousands, and a real person gets penalized even if they owe less than $1000 and cannot pay.

That's 12.1 million per conference. The catering companies are laughing all the way to the bank. Are you sure those figures are correct? Even with 1000 people at a conference, that works out at $12100 per person. Where do I sign up?

Naturally, this makes me furious. I read about the same thing and was not surprised. They don't look on that money as the sweat and blood of the people, they see it as a huge inexhaustible resource that they can tap as they see fit. The people are so terrified of the IRS, and rightly so, that few would even dream of changing their filing status to pay fewer taxes and then refusing at the end of the year to pay what they owe. If everyone would do that perhaps we'd get some results but I doubt it would ever happen. I would like to see a vast gathering of taxpayers on the steps of Congress and the WH premises. I'd like to see picketing outside conferences like the ones mentioned. I'd like to see people rise up in righteous indignation to protest this abuse of our tax money but it won't happen. I'd like to see all those people prosecuted for theft. I can dream, can't I?

Our country is a little twisted. We are showing our kids that a successful career would be a movie star, a pop star, a professional athlete, or a politician. That's where the money is and no one worries about morals or honesty.

Yeah, conferences are a good example of government and corporate waste. I'm not saying that all conferences are without value, but most of them are an opportunity for somebody to pad something. I'll never forget the conference where university custodians charged an all male conference $50 a roll for toilet paper put in the women's bathroom. I reserved the conference rooms so they made an assumption that it was a woman's conference. Heck, I was the only woman there and I was too busy to go anyplace near the restrooms. I made them credit my account, but I still shake my head to think somebody could be expected to pay that much of the taxpayers money for a roll of toilet paper. I get mine at the dollar store for less than a quarter a roll. Unless I am mistaken that would be around 200 rolls for $50.

gOOD Morning Rob, i agree w/u 100 %. They all need to learn to live like we all do. I'm not rich by any means & have to watch my p's & q's with everything because that was the way i have always had to do. I think it's a shame that they get by with doing the things they do & someone needs to put a stop to it!!!!

This is something that is a concern to us here in Australia too! We have families that are struggling to put food on their tables and we all just heard of a report that one of our foreign ministers spent $77,000 on just one trip by staying in a hotel that charges $2000 per night for accommodation! The seventy seven grand is only one trip we can only imagine how much is spent overall by this government of ours!

This is an excellent example of how the government wastes our money. These disgusting government officials have no qualms about wasting taxpayer dollars at all. They act like it's an unlimited bank account that they can spend from whenever they want. They live in luxury and we foot the bill. The democrats think that more government is better. They want to create more of these wasteful government agencies. More and more government, more and more waste. It's no wonder that we have such a deficit and debt. It reminds me of what Ronald Reagan said, "Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem."

It is annoying. Especially in my country where corruption is so rampant. They keep on telling us that we need more money, we have this much debt in the world bank, and so and so, but you can see them living luxurious lives, having properties that they could not afford with their salaries. They make projects wherein only 1/4 of the allotted project actually goes into the project. The 3/4 of the funds go to the pockets of the government officials and the 3rd party they contracted with. It's sick. It makes me not want to pay taxes. The sad thing about it is that if you don't pay your taxes, they imprison you, but we can't imprison them because they're stealing money from us