That is apparently the food budget for Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) who says that he needs $200,000 a year to feed his family. Since his children are grown and have left home, he has to spend that to feed himself and his wife.
So, assume they eat three meals a day. That's 365 days, three meals a day, two people, or 2,190 meals. Divide that by his $200,000 food allowance, and that comes out to $91.32 per person per meal.
Maybe he might want to try eating breakfast at Denny's from time to time. With coffee and a tip, he and his wife could eat there for less than $10 a person, so they'd save $160 on that meal alone.
It is hard to imagine how anyone can spend close to $550 a day on food for two people, unless they're having Kobe beef twice a week with caviar for an appetizer.
Shall we gather at the river?
4 hours ago
Well, "feed" is typically used as a metaphor in these things. Being a Congressman does require you to maintain two homes (one back home and one in D.C.), which is more expensive than for us peons. And the kids may not be at home anymore but I suspect they're still getting support from Daddy. Still, anybody who can't get by on $200K/year needs to seriously look at his lifestyle, as you correctly point out. Especially when "back home" is a place as cheap to live in as Louisiana, where $40K/year is enough money to buy you a nice house in the suburbs and all the grits and cornbread and turnip greens you can eat.
ReplyDelete- Badtux the Former Louisiana Penguin
Nobody out here in the real world of people with little to no money has any sympathy for these Oh No Don't Tax My $250,000 Income. In fact, we tend more to phrases like "Fuck 'em where they live and breathe."
ReplyDeleteIn less vulgar terms - taxes were way higher during the Reagan administration. Reagan raised taxes three times (I think)! And the economy was booming, unemployment was low, and CEOs invested in increasing the size of their companies and in chasing new business, all of which provided jobs.
Then, Presidents and Congresses started handing out tax cuts, and strangely enough.... the economy started to dry up. Hmm. A coincidence or a connection?