Steve Kagen: BIG SPENDER

Hey, BIG SPENDER!

Wisconsin's own U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen, DEMOCRAT, holds the title for being the biggest spender in Congress for office expenses.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Rep. Steve Kagen is the biggest spender in the U.S. House when it comes to spending taxpayer money on maintaining his congressional office, according to the latest quarterly logs of expenditures by members of Congress.

Kagen, an Appleton Democrat in his second term, spent $452,000 on office expenses such as salaries, travel, supplies and services in the third quarter of this year - more than any other House member, according to an analysis of the logs by the Sunlight Foundation. Rep. Alan Grayson, a Florida Democrat who spent $449,000, and Rep. Bart Gordon, a Democrat from Tennessee who spent $445,000, followed closely behind.

Kagen's spending between July and September reflects the fact that the congressman was especially active this summer in an effort to be accessible to constituents as the House debates a major health care reform measure, said spokesman Jake Rubin.

"Congressman Kagen is working hard to be responsive to the questions and concerns of his constituents, including mailing letters to folks who contact him, holding town hall meetings throughout northeast Wisconsin and our very popular interactive tele-town halls," he said in an e-mail.

House members typically receive between $1.3 million and $1.9 million annually from federal coffers to run their congressional offices. The sum varies depending on the size of their congressional districts, the distance between their home districts and Washington and other factors. Any unspent funds can be returned to the U.S. Treasury, and several members of Wisconsin's congressional delegation usually do that.

Distance between Kagen's home district and Washington certainly does not account for the excess.

Kagen's constituents are all east of the Mississippi; and it's not as if Kagen is holding a zillion townhall meetings.

What kind of mailings does Kagen do that would cost so much to earn him the title as biggest spender? He must be mailing out loads and loads of needless crap.

This big spender title is an embarrassment. Kagen is spending like it's someone else's money. I suppose that's because IT IS. It's our money he's wasting.

Bottom line: Kagen is not fiscally responsible.