Why are some of Colorado's representatives in Washington D.C. so afraid to show taxpayers where their money goes?

If you were on the government payroll at a salary of $174,000 and your office was operated at taxpayer expense to the tune of at least $1.3 million, is it out of line to explain to taxpayers how you are spending their money?  Of course it is not.  As much as those in Washington D.C. would like to deny it, they are answerable to We the People – their employers. 

Congressmen are given $1.3 million per year and senators $2 million to run their offices.  Channel 7 recently posed the question to Colorado’s seven congressmen and two senators – What are you doing with the money the people provide you? 

That is a lot of money and not an unreasonable question.  What is unreasonable is the responses some of our representatives provided. 

Senators Mark Udall (D) and Michael Bennet(D) as well as Representatives Ed Perlmutter (D) and Mike Coffman (R) provided the documentation the news station requested.  The other five however either refused to, made up bogus excuses or just simply didn’t answer the phone.

Representatives Diana DeGette (D) and John Salazar (D) made the lame excuse that “the information is turned over to the House finance office and their offices did not keep copies.”  It of course is highly unlikely that copies of some sort were not kept.  If the representatives had not kept them then they surely could have obtained them from the House finance office – assuming of course they wanted to serve their constituents. 

The most ridiculous response came from Representative Salazar.  Salazar leases three SUV’s on the taxpayers’ dime on top of the $1,400 vehicle allowance he gets.  When Channel 7 questioned him, he said, “I don’t represent Denver” meaning that he didn’t need to answer a Denver TV station’s question. Well, Congressman Salazar, your district may not include Denver but you do represent Colorado.  You can be assured your constituents will be aware of your response and the lack of respect you apparently have for them.

Then of course there were the two representatives that apparently just refused to provide the information.  Representatives Doug Lamborn (R) and Jared Polis (D) said they have a “policy to not provide the information” thus refusing to be accountable to their constituents.

Lastly was Representative Betsy Markey (D) who took the simple approach of just not answering.  She would not return phone calls or emails and when confronted refused to answer questions.  I suppose that may be the safest approach.  I guess if you don’t say anything or reveal anything then you can’t get in trouble. 

In the end, more than half of Colorado’s representatives in Washington D.C. displayed an air of arrogance that has come to be entirely too common in our nation’s capitol.  These folks get elected and they then believe that seat is their right and they are no longer answerable to the citizens they represent .  They forget that they work for us and it is We the People that OWN that seat!

Udall, Bennet, Perlmutter and Coffman should all be applauded for understanding how things are supposed to work – they answer to us.  The other four should be ashamed and perhaps when they are up for election next year they need to be shown that they are indeed accountable to the people at the ballot box if no place else. 

• On the net: CALL7 Investigators Question Congress On Office Spending, Some Freely Provided Receipts Of Expenses, Others Refused

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