Gee, a "no-receipts" policy for expense reimbursement is rife with abuse...

I mean, who would've thunk it that congress critters would take advantage? Oh, that's right, literally EVERYBODY would've thunk it...

Setting the stage…

I have been in the corporate game for a long time, and much of that tine I did considerable business travel. Lots and lots to Asia and points in Europe. And one thing I got down to a fine art was on the fucking day I returned to the office, I dutifully filled out my expense reports.

I did this for two reasons, one, that I mostly didn’t have a corporate card, and thus it was my personal AMEX card. And I wanted to pay that off every month. Because AMEX, while being great at protecting you from fraud (seriously, even in the early 2000’s their heuristic systems figured out when a skeevy server in Santa Barbara lifted my number and started charging things against it), but if you didn’t pay that Green card off month by month, the interest was ruinous.

And this worked great.

Second, there were plenty of things that you couldn’t use plastic for. Cabs, incidentals (the quick packaged sandwich lunch from a Japanese convenience store). Thus I had a lot of small receipts for random bits and bobs of things you just buy. If I had a receipt and I couldn’t match it to a legitimate expense, I had to eat it. And brother, I fucking hated eating even $40 on a trip. Yeah, now I wouldn’t bat an eye, but back when I got started, that meant something, and it instilled in me a discipline.

So, I am a firm believer in doing your expenses promptly and accurately.

The main event

This morning, when I was breaking my fast with a stupidly overpriced ham and cheese omelet (it was pretty good to be honest) I was reading the WaPo on my iPad, and this article popped up: “Lawmakers expensed millions in 2023 under new program that doesn’t require receipts (gifted link)”.

Turns out in 2022, the foxes guarding the henhouse passed a bill to create an honor system for incidental expenses that didn’t require members to submit receipts.

The program, which kicked off last year after a House panel passed it with bipartisan support, was intended to make it easier for lawmakers to cover the cost of maintaining separate homes in D.C. and their home districts. But critics argue that its reliance on the honor system and lack of transparent record-keeping makes it ripe for abuse.

The reimbursement scheme’s lack of receipt requirements is a “ridiculous loophole,” said Craig Holman, a lobbyist for the good government group Public Citizen. “Clearly it becomes very difficult to tell whether or not it’s a legitimate payment and whether it’s proper,” Holman added.

Look, I get that to most of the country, a salary of $174K seems ludicrous, but the truth is that it is costly for a member of congress to maintain their home in their district, AND to have a crash-pad in DC. And DC is stupid expensive for rent and cost of living.

Must be because it is populated with grifting wastes of skin, but I digress.

So, I do not have a problem with them expensing some of that expense.

What I do have a problem is with the bolded part from that pull quote.

That is for the “no shit Sherlock” hall of fame. And any guess who was the biggest offender in 2023?

Could it be the human five-head experiment, Matt Gaetz himself?

Sure it could.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the program’s overall top spender, was reimbursed for nearly $30,000 in lodging expenses and more than $10,000 for food in 2023. He was reimbursed for more than $4,000 for lodging in two different months and more than $3,000 in five different months.

That smarmy motherfucker expensed WITHOUT RECEIPTS or any documentation of about $40K.

Look, I pay my taxes. I pay plenty of taxes. I don’t mind what my taxes are used for (I would like to see a LOT more aid to Ukraine please if they are taking requests) but to have Grifty McForehead padding his pockets so he can venmo even more underage girls he’s banging I get a little het-up.

I should add that there are some honorable folks in the lower house…

Some members of Congress who own homes in the Washington area, including Reps. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Mike McCaul (R-Tex.), have chosen not to participate in the program at all. Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), who owns a $1 million home in Virginia, was reimbursed less than $1,500 each month.

Good for them. But then there is the walking twatwaffle that is Nancy Mace:

But other D.C. area homeowners, including Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), requested significantly higher reimbursements than Banks did for some months of 2023.

Mace, who co-owns a $1,649,000 Capitol Hill townhouse she purchased in 2021 with her then-fiancé, Patrick Bryant, expensed a total of $19,395 over the nine-month period ending on Sept. 30, 2023, an average of more than $2,000 a month. She expensed over $3,000 for lodging in January, March and May.

Eric Swalwell - do better. Mace is beyond redemption.

Mace instructed her staff to seek the maximum reimbursement each day the House was in session, regardless of her actual expenses, two former members of her staff and one other person familiar with the matter alleged to The Post. Mace denies that allegation.

This shit really needs to be better policed, but it is no surprise that it was passed with overwhelming support from members of both parties. I get trying to streamline processes, but this is just insane.

Rant over, I feel better now.

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