Why do republicans think it’s okay for Palin and her family to get away with spending tax dollars this way?
Posted on May 27, 2009 under snowmobile travel |The spending spree included a $75,062.63 visit to Neiman Marcus and two stops at Saks Fifth Avenue that totaled $49,425.74, according to Cummings.
Doesn’t sound like “just your average hockey mom.” In fact, the …
… average American spends only about $1,874 a year on clothing and services, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
The Ticket tracked down the RNC’s financial disclosure records for September and October and confirmed that the RNC did indeed charge the purchases that Cummings cites (they were billed as “campaign accessories”).
They include purchases made at Bloomingdale’s ($5,102.71), Barney’s ($789.72), a men’s boutique called Atelier ($4,902.45) and at two baby clothing and accessory stores.
It’s unclear whether all of the charges were related to Palin (e-mails sent to the McCain-Palin campaign about the nature of the charges were not returned Tuesday night), but some of them almost certainly were.
Newsweek reported in September that a campaign aide took Todd Palin shopping at a Saks Fifth Avenue, where he bought a new suit to wear to the Republican National Convention. And the New York Post reported that Palin gave her big speech in St. Paul in a $2,500 jacket designed by Valentino Garavani and also purchased from Saks.
It is legal for campaigns to buy clothes for their candidates, but it is unusual. Most candidates running for office pay for their own clothing. Politico’s Cummings reports that a review of similar records for the campaign of Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee revealed no similar spending.
Meanwhile, in other Palin spending news, the Associated Press reported today that as governor of Alaksa she mischarged the state for her children’s travels.
Palin often took her children along while traveling, the AP reports, including to events where they were not invited. The AP says Palin’s office later amended expense reports to specify that they were on official business. Here is an excerpt:
The charges included costs for hotel and commercial flights for three daughters to join Palin to watch their father in a snowmobile race, and a trip to New York, where the governor attended a five-hour conference and stayed with 17-year-old Bristol for five days and four nights in a luxury hotel.
In all, Palin has charged the state $21,012 for her three daughters’ 64 one-way and 12 round-trip commercial flights since she took office in December 2006. In some other cases, she has charged the state for hotel rooms for the girls.
Obviously there is much unwarranted expenditures here and I'm sure this isn't even BEGINNING to scrape the surface.
This started LONG BEFORE the campaign obviously.
And also, you don't see Michelle, Obama, Biden, or his family doing this during the campaign either.
BRIAN: Tell Alaskans that wasn't THEIR tax money she was spending there…you obviously never read the above.
Aimee, you must be clairvoyant. ;~)
READ, people, READ….
Because it’s one of THEM, not you.
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By Fed up American on May 28, 2009 | Reply
Because it’s one of THEM, not you.
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By Brian on May 28, 2009 | Reply
It seems she didn't spend tax dollars as the RNC picked up the tab..
Do we really know what the DNC has spent money on for Obama or Biden? It's not like there is any scrutiny at all of Obama or his campaign..
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By fred on May 28, 2009 | Reply
Nothing Palin does can be challenged on moral grounds, however unethical or evil it might appear, because all of her actions are directed by God
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By aimee c on May 28, 2009 | Reply
get ready for more republican excuses
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By Sassy One on May 28, 2009 | Reply
Wow, it’s going to be a rough Christmas if Barbie clothes have gone up that much.
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By soundguy393 on May 28, 2009 | Reply
Just to keep the facts straight. Caribou Barbies new outfits were paid for by the RNC.
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By Flawbit on May 28, 2009 | Reply
Actually it was the media complaining that they wernt dressed enough, calling them white trash etc, then when the rnc dresses them, the media complains complain about it.
All the clothes they bought are going uup for auction post election though…
but shall we talk about michelle Obamas 450 dollar LUNCH for herself at the waldorf?
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By McCain08 on May 28, 2009 | Reply
Do you have any idea how much money she has saved the state of Alaska by getting rid of the private jet the prior governor used? More money would have been spent on jet fuel in one month than she has "charged" the state for the travel expenses for her children. In addition, her children would have been riding for "free" on that jet.
As far as hotel expenses, Bristol was staying in the same room with her mother. Where is the big deal here. I simply do not get it!
I would love to see how much money Obama has spent on the designer suits he sports for his campaign. I would bet it would easily surpass any dollar amount spent by Palin.
These are simply more media smears on Palin. It is getting pretty petty.
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By oma_30701 on May 28, 2009 | Reply
First off I really don’t care what she spends on clothes as the RNC paid for it not my tax dollars, and as someone else has said we have no clue how much the DNC has spent on Obama or Biden…Find something else to bitch about please….
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By Chris I on May 28, 2009 | Reply
I don’t care if the RNC pays for their clothing (the amount is rather ridiculous but I don’t care)…I don’t really care if her kids travel with her on business either (I don’t live in Alaska though)…I do care that she rambles on and on about Joe the Plumber and what taxes will do to people like Joe (which is not even accurate) and then sees no problem spending over $100,000 on clothes in a 2 month period of time and while in Alaska she had no problem spending tax payer money for herself and her kids to travel sometimes it was all business sometimes it was not…I have a problem with someone who says they stand up against the very behaviors she demonstrates and calls herself a Maverick…Okay she can call herself a Maverick to make herself feel better about her poor choices but I am a little more accurate in my “labeling”…She’s a HYPOCRITE, plain and simple…
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By samanthakhz on May 28, 2009 | Reply
Palin is so Hollywood-Scandalish, and the Republicans are cheering for her because they finally have a Hollywood type Politician.
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yay Hollywood!
By kikoman on May 28, 2009 | Reply
The RNC did not pay for her trip to watch her / her family to watch her husband in a snowmobile race, the State of Alaska did. The RNC did not pay for her 117 days she charged the State of Alaska.. for per diem for sleeping at her own home, the Alaska's taxpayers did. The jet was sold at a lost to the state, and the state officials fly in a old plane that is down 1/3 of the time for maintenance. She is under investigation for her flying her children all over Alaska and the US at taxpayers expense.
She is not an agent of CHANGE, she is a tax and spend Republican, just like Bush.
Added:
Looks like Palin will have to pay taxes on the $150,000, it depends on the principal tax issue, was the purchase , whether constitutes a deductible business expense, or the clothing constitutes a non-deductible personal consumption.
In a leading judicial precedent on the question "Pevsner v. Commissioner", the court found that it was a non-deductible personal consumption expense.
Even worse for Palin there are payroll tax, as well as income tax implications.
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My Yahoo news,
Print Story: Paliun'sNew Clothes Augur Tax Problem- Yahoo news