Next time you hear a Tea Party lament about wasteful government spending, consider this:
The Tea Party Patriots super PAC, (which is supporting Mac Bevin against Mitch McConnell) has produced $56,000 in direct help....while spending over 2 million on consulting fees, fundraising, and polling.
What really stands out is the expenditures made to the group's founder and president, Jenny Beth Martin.....
Martin filed for bankruptcy in 2008 and then cleaned homes for a period of time to bring in extra money. But today she gets a salary of $272,000 as president of the PAC and about another $180,000 for "consulting fees" to the PAC. Her take is about $450,000 for the year.
This could be a growth industry!
Another official with the PAC, Richard Norman is paid $15,000 a month in salary and the direct mail firm he operates gets another $2.7 million in business from the PAC for direct mail fundraising. Conflict of interest maybe?
Here's another one:
The Tea Party Express, a PAC run out of Sacramento by longtime Republican consultant Sal Russo, has paid Russo's firm $2.75 million since the beginning of 2013, while donating just $45,000 to candidates and spending less than $162,000 on ads and bus tours supporting their election.
Are these not groups that rail against Washington spending? Don't they demand fiscal responsibility? Do the donors that support the PACs really want this kind of largesse given to the leadership?
The Tea Party notoriety depended on Washington type groups to promote their message the same way as the "politics as usual" crowd. They have become just another means of collecting money from gullible donors.
It's just another political scam....the same kind they tell us they are fighting.
Kind of sad.
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