Saturday, March 10, 2018

Trump Administration: “Splurgers and Plutocrats Я Us” – Serving Their Own Personal Greed

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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