Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Benghazi Investigation Spends Fortune to Harass Hillary Clinton
The Benghazi Select Committee moves slowly but spends quickly, exceeding the budget of the entire House Intelligence Committee
http://observer.com/2015/06/sticker-shock-calculating-the-benghazi-investigations-huge-price-tag/
~~
This has been a consistent theme of the Houses investigationa frenzy of media fireworks, with little substantive progress made in pursuit of the committees actual mandate. (The majority staff of the Benghazi Select Committee did not respond to requests for comment).
Led by a an 18-member Republican staff, whose full time employees are paid an average of $128,750 per year, the Benghazi Select Committee has proceeded at a plodding pace. Thus far, it has held only three hearings and by the end of this week will have interviewed just 29 witnesses. In comparison the Congressional investigation into the Iran Contra scandal lasted 10.5 months, during which time investigators conducted 500 interviews along with 40 days of public hearings.
The lack of progress is especially striking considering seven Congressional committees and a State Department Accountability Review Board already conducted inquires into the attack. Most recently the findings of the Republican led House Intelligence Committee found no evidence for many of the accusations hurled at President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other government officials.
Over 13 months the Benghazi Select Committee has spent more than $3,500,000, exceeding the budget of the entire House Intelligence Committee. This figure does not include significant expenditures made by the State Department and Defense Department to find and declassify material requested by the committee or the expense of witness travel for those who work for the government.
While exact dollar amounts spent by federal agencies are unavailable, details released about other declassification processes shed light on these costs. In March 2014 the Defense Department informed Democratic Rep. Adam Smith, they had spent millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours to responding to numerous and often repetitive Congressional requests regarding Benghazi. Currently the State Department has 12 full-time staff members paid between $63,700 and $150,000 reviewing Hillary Clintons emails a process that could cost more than $1 million according to the National Journal. The total cost for these document queries could run well into the eight figures. For example, the IRS spent $14 million responding to Congressional investigations into accusations it politicized the tax-exemption application process.
(more)
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
4 replies, 1048 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (7)
ReplyReply to this post
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Benghazi Investigation Spends Fortune to Harass Hillary Clinton (Original Post)
Bill USA
Sep 2015
OP
good gawd. I think of how many mouths this would feed or heating for this winter for
riversedge
Sep 2015
#1
riversedge
(70,186 posts)1. good gawd. I think of how many mouths this would feed or heating for this winter for
those in need.
Gothmog
(145,129 posts)2. The GOP needs to reimburse taxpayers for this waste of time
Bill USA
(6,436 posts)3. and about $17.5 million (est including the current 8th "investigation")
King_Klonopin
(1,306 posts)4. It is another example of the Republicans' sinister genius
They have found a way to fund their own negative campaign ads
using taxpayers' money. They have been abusing power for partisan
advantage for decades. Genius! Also, loathsome.