House Republicans To Waste 3.3 Million Taxpayer Dollars On Special Benghazi Investigation

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House Republicans claim that the nation can’t afford to spend money, but they are about to waste 3.3 million taxpayer dollars on their special Benghazi investigation.

USA Today reported:

House Republicans are planing to spend as much as $3.3 million for this year’s operations of the special committee they created in May to investigate the September 2012 Benghazi attacks, a bigger budget than the House Veterans Affairs and Ethics Committees were given this year.

According to a committee document provided by Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office, House Republicans want a $3.3 million budget for this year’s operations of the 12-member select committee on the Benghazi attacks. As with most congressional committees, the document indicates the majority party gets the bigger share of the resources for the panel; the budget provides just under $2.2 million for Republicans and just over $1 million for Democrats on the committee. There are seven GOP lawmakers and five Democrats serving on the committee, and it is expected to have a staff of 30.

By comparison, the House committee on Veterans Affairs — which has has a roster of 25 lawmakers and about 27 staff members — spent just $2.5 million in 2013 and has a $3 million budget for 2014. The Ethics Committee budget for 2014 was just over $3 million, with a staff of about 25 serving 10 lawmakers.

DCCC Chairman Steve Israel blasted House Republicans’ priorities, “Think about these flawed priorities for a minute: House Republicans think their partisan witch hunt is a bigger priority for taxpayer dollars than the Veterans Affairs Committee. From the start, it has been clear that Republicans are reprehensibly using this select committee as a campaign tool, and now their campaign tool is going to cost taxpayers millions of dollars.”

House Republicans will almost certainly end up wasting millions more taxpayer dollars if they follow through with their plan to sue President Obama. They have also wasted millions of dollars investigating the IRS. All three of these expenditures have a common goal. They are designed to get House Republicans elected in November.

Speaker Boehner’s select committee on Benghazi will be the seventh congressional investigation of the attack in the last two years. The country doesn’t need another Benghazi investigation. Voters aren’t clamoring for another Benghazi investigation. The only people who want to keep investigating Benghazi as the Republicans who are trying to avoid running on their meager records this fall. House Republicans have tried to cut almost every program that exists to help people. They have slashed programs like food stamps, Meals On Wheels, school lunches, and unemployment benefits. If something helps anything other than corporations and millionaires, it is a certainty that House Republicans have tried to cut it.

Republicans have claimed that the nation can’t afford to pay for extending unemployment benefits, but they are throwing away millions of dollars on bogus Benghazi investigations. House Republicans like to label themselves fiscally conservative, but no true conservative would tolerate the level of waste that is apparent in Boehner’s House.

The latest Benghazi investigation has already been decried as a political stunt, but what has been overlooked is that it is also a giant waste of taxpayer money.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association