Two Nights, one Hotel Room in Copenhagen Costs Taxpayers $4406.00

Let me get this straight: Americans are all being forced to: tighten their belts due to a recession caused by government interference with the housing market; warily watch the economy for the feared “double-dip” recession that, if it comes, will also have been caused by government interference in the Nation’s business; hold onto jobs that they don’t like for fear of being unable to find another one if they quit;  take “stay-cations” because they can’t afford real vacations; and basically cut back on anything and everything.

Meanwhile, over 100 Representatives and government workers spent over $1.1 million dollars to attend the Copenhagen Summit.  Not only did our Representatives spend 1.1 Million Tax-Payer Dollars to attend a summit based on fabricated evidence of Global Warming, (Climategate emails), but they also in no way accounted for the taxpayer money they spent while there.  Furthermore, had the so-called leaders had their way, this Summit would have forced Americans to pay higher taxes and increased energy costs in order to subsidize third-world, emerging countries’ efforts to go “green”.  So we go to a Climate Change Conference to pay countries like China to whom we already owe billions of dollars.

The recently released expense report lists each Representative and some staffers being reimbursed exactly $4,406.00.  Nancy Pelosi claimed that $4,406.00 was the cost of the hotel (the Five Star Marriott Copenhagen):

Pelosi’s office did offer an explanation for the high room charges. Those who stayed just two nights were charged a six-night minimum at the five-star Marriott. One staffer said, they strongly objected to no avail. You may ask how they’ll negotiate a climate treaty, if they can’t get a better deal on hotel rooms. (CBSNews.com)

So the question is:  Is Nancy Pelosi lying to us?  If we believe her story, then we must believe that the Marriott gouged the U.S. government, because with a little research, I discovered that the best, most expensive room in the Marriott Copenhagen goes for about $435/night.  Even if the Representatives were charged for six nights the total only comes to $2610.00.  In order for Pelosi’s explanation to fly, the Marriot would have had to nearly double the average cost of the most expensive rooms in the hotel and charge each Representative for six nights when they only stayed there for two.  If this Congressional Delegation had any care as to how much taxpayer money they squander, wouldn’t they have attempted to plan ahead and book a block of rooms months prior to the event, considering that this Summit had been scheduled for many months, if not years?  It would seem that the Representatives may have actually received a discount by doing so, subsequently saving the American taxpayer some of our hard-earned money.  But wait, isn’t that the problem here?  They don’t care how much they spend because it wasn’t their money they were spending, it was the Government’s money, so what’s the big deal?  These people are just like the Detroit woman who, when asked why she was standing in line outside a government center, she told the reporter that she was waiting to get money from Obama’s stash.  The only difference between the Representatives and their staffers and that woman is that the Representatives and staffers are better dressed.

Another lingering question is how is it that EVERY Representative and some of the staff members received EXACTLY $4,406.00 in a per diem payment after the trip?  The Congressional travel rules do not require the members to actually itemize their expenses, so where exactly did the $4,406.00 come from?  Is that an approximate amount or is there a set per diem for travel that isn’t published anywhere but in Nancy Pelosi’s office?  After searching every imaginable site I could think of and calling a Representative’s office, I couldn’t find any documentation of a set “Foreign Travel” per diem rate.  So the question is: is Nancy Pelosi lying to us?  (If that is the case, did she think adding that last $6 to each person’s payment would make it more believable?  Why bother?)  As most people know, per diem payments are untaxed cash payments for travel expenses, sometimes paid separately and sometimes included in the employee’s regular paycheck and usually based on concrete itemization resulting from the keeping of receipts and documentation of expenses.   This, however, seems more like a nice little un-taxed Christmas bonus for the Representatives and some of their staff members.

Then there’s the case of the staff members and the per diem payments made to them.  For example, Christopher King and Shimere Williams, both Professional Staff Members for the Energy and Environment Subcommittee were reimbursed $13,709.00. Strangely,  Christopher King was in Copenhagen two days less than Shimere Williams, but yet had exactly the same amounts listed under their “Per Diem” payment – $6990.00 and Transportation payment – $6,719.00 as Mr. Williams.  The $6990.00 payments are in the same column as the Representatives’ $4,406.00 payments, so if Mr. Williams spent two days more than Mr. King and four days more than the Representatives did in Copenhagen, how is it possible?  If Nancy Pelosi is being honest about the hotel costs, how is it that Mr. King and Mr. Williams were reimbursed exactly the same amount? In fact, there are seven staff members who list their transportation expense as $6719.00.  These staffers couldn’t take the Military planes like the Representatives, they had to fly commercial like the rest of us schmucks, except it probably wasn’t Economy:  it was most likely First Class.

Apparently the Marriott wasn’t the only business gouging the government, if the costs of airfare for the Congressional Delegation staff members is to be believed.   Can we believe their numbers?  Or their explanation?  According to CBS.com:

Flights weren’t cheap, either. Fifty-nine House and Senate staff flew commercial during the Copenhagen rush. They paid government rates — $5-10,000 each — totaling $408,064. Add three military jets — $168,351 just for flight time — and the bill tops $1.1 million dollars — not including all the Obama administration officials who attended: well over 60.

A quick search of the cost for First Class flights in December from Washington, DC to Denmark  results in about $3000 per round-trip flight.  That’s some expensive airfare, but not nearly as much as what some staff members claimed.  Ed Rice, Committee for Foreign Affairs Senior Professional Staff Member, must have had a wretched time finding flights as he expensed $10,264.00 for Transportation.  Giving Ed and others like him the benefit of the doubt, perhaps we can hope that some of that travel expense was also in the form of rental cars or cab-fare. (Considering that the bulk of the Summit was held in or near the Marriott hotel, it would seem to make sense that since they were at a Climate Change Summit that they’d want to keep their carbon footprint as small as possible and hoof it now and then.)  But maybe that’s just crazy, because, again, it isn’t THEIR money, so why would they care?

Some are trying to give a partial pass to these freeloaders by saying that it was necessary for them to be in Copenhagen; that they did work very hard to try to get an agreement set up between all the parties involved.  But, were they all necessary?  How many Representatives from the Energy and Commerce Committee did we really need there?  According to the expense reports, the real workers at the Summit were the Staff Counsel for the various committees, many of whom were in Copenhagen for all days of the Summit but still managed to expense less per day than the average Representative.  Since there was no agreement at the end of the Summit, one could justifiably say that having any of the delegation there was an absolute waste of taxpayer money.

The following is the list of Representatives who attended the Summit and what committee they belong to.   On the Expenditure Report, each Representative has listed $4,406.00 as their expenses; keep in mind, this does NOT include the cost of the military plane(s) to fly them there.

*Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi

*Majority Leader Steny Hoyer

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