WASHINGTON, D.C.
If politicians are so worked up over lavish conventions funded by taxpayers, the two major parties should give back more than $35 million they are given to hold their extravagant national political conventions, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said last Thursday, May 17.
That's after widespread outrage in Congress over revelations that the General Services Administration blew more than $800,000 on a junket to Las Vegas, complete with gourmet meals, bicycle clinics and a mind-reader.
Coburn, who has been a fierce critic of convention boondoggles run by federal agencies, made his case in a letter to both the Democratic and Republican parties, saying that with politicians lambasting such excess, the two parties should return the $17.7 million that each have already gotten from the U.S. Treasury.
"Can we agree once and for all the party is over when it comes to travel and meetings paid for by the taxpayers?" Coburn wrote to RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and DNC head Debbie Wasserman Schultz. "If you agree, I would urge you to reject the millions of dollars of public financing for your 2012 party convention provided by the federal government through the Presidential Election Campaign Fund (PECF) and to return the money to the federal government."
