“America's Most
Unwanted”
Mnuchin;
Pruitt; Price; Shulkin; Zinke; Carson
Introduction: We continue to
see and read the headlines and news about the greedy in the Trump swamp – the
swamp he pledged to drain but then he kind of got sidetracked on his
way to getting buying a plunger and Drano®, right?
The pattern is clear and obvious for Trump appointees who
seem to copy the leader as it were:
“Get in; get rich(er); and gain more profit while ducking, dodging, denying,
deceiving, and deflecting the truth and facts as they claim to be working for
and serving the American people to make us great again.”
Q: When did we stop being
great? In short, greed is their game and certainly their name.
The culprits follow and some
of their lavish
travel is from here.
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke
(twice): Now here he is again in the spotlight with his hand in
the proverbial cookie jar (again) by getting new office doors upgraded (they
say) for his office at a mere cost of $139,000. This comes on top of Zinke,
last December, when he received criticism for a $6,250 helicopter ride he took
from Virginia to Washington to ride horses with VP Pence. Then last November
his department’s Deputy IG Mary Kendall wrote in a letter to Zinke’s office that an
investigation into his travel expenses had been held up because of “incomplete
documentation” for several trips he took. The investigation is looking at trips
like his $12,000 chartered flight from Las Vegas to near his hometown in
Montana.
Dr. Ben Carson, Secretary of HUD: Recently
cancelled an order for a $31,000 dining set for his
office when it was publicly disclosed.
Tom Price, Former Rep. and then Former Secretary
of HHS: Price resigned last September after Politico revealed
that he repeatedly used chartered private planes for trips that cost taxpayers
more than $400,000. Officials are expected to fly on commercial airlines unless
there is no alternative.
Scott Pruitt, Administrator of the EPA: Environmental
Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt’s chartered flights and first
class travel have also come under the microscope. In February The
Washington Post reported that Pruitt took a $1,641.43 first-class
flight from Washington to New York last June after Trump announced America’s
intention to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Pruitt also cost taxpayers
$36,068.50 when he and a number of staffers rushed on a military jet to New
York to catch a flight to Rome.
Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the
Treasury: He also has defended a flight that he and his wife
Louise Linton took to Fort Knox before the solar eclipse last August. Yet the
Treasury’s Office of IG reviewing the circumstances and reasons for the trip.
David Shulkin, Secretary of VA: Last
month Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin was found in an inspector
general’s report to have breached ethics rules by improperly accepting tickets
to the Wimbledon tennis tournament in Britain. The department, it found,
subsidized his wife Merle Bari’s $4,300 flight during the trip where Shulkin
mixed official business and sightseeing at a cost of at least $122,334.
Top of the heap and not “draining the
swamp” more like draining the taxpayers is none other than Donald J. Trump
himself: All of this excessive and
lavish spending of taxpayer money should come as no surprise as the “tone from
the top” has been set by Trump’s own frequent trips to his Mar-a-Lago golf
resort.
For example and to date,
Trump spends roughly $3.6 million each time he shuttles back and
forth between his Florida golf resort (Mar-a-Lago) and the White House or to his
other properties mostly for golf, too. Since his inauguration Trump has
taken 14 trips to Mar-a-Lago alone.
Recall this gem from Trump when he said he’d have no
time for golf as he blasted Mr. Obama for playing too much golf – this is a
keeper for sure:
My 2 cents: We now have the government we deserve I guess, but I also
wonder: Is it truly a reflection of who we were, who we strive to be, or who we
have become?
More important question: Why does Trump keep appointing people like those above and in most cases, keeping them after their shenanigans are reported? Oh, yeah, “Fake News” right?
The answers are really staring
us all right in the face at this moment in our history.
So, are we failing the test
of time and passing off hypocrisy for flowery words like love of country, stand
for our values, support justice and know the difference between right and
wrong, or are we so engrossed in this latest Trump TV reality show that we
can’t see and accept the con for what it is?
That, my friends is NOT a rhetorical question. Solution? Try on November 6 (mid-term congressional election — the choice is yours).
Thanks for stopping by.
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