Congress spends a whole lot of taxpayer money keeping itself stocked with paperclips. According to figures assembled by the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation, Congress spent $1,013,162,955 on its own expenses from June 2009 to March 2010. Aol News pored over the findings, and pulled out some choice expenditures. Like:
- $114,925 for the Democratic Caucus' retreat in Williamsburg
- $51.6 million to pay 637 chiefs of staff and deputy chiefs of staff
- $12.6 million to pay staff member's student loans
- $362,939 to pay for ex-speaker (and current lobbyist) Dennis Hastert's office
- $7.5 million on office supplies
- $317,304 for new drapes
- $604,000 for bottled water
- $84,794 paid to companies specializing in coffee
- $11 million spent on newspapers (hey, at least someone's buying them)
- $12.5 million spent on travel, for an average 45 trip expenditures per representative
For much, much more, check out the source
here.
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