Glenn Beck is all up in arms that the House Ethics Committee has barred some members of congress from going to his rally in Israel later this month.
On the air, Beck said he‘d heard it was Boehner’s office that was not approving members of Congress to attend the event, with 35 representatives at one point planning to attend before being told they’d been rejected by the House and would have to self-fund the trip if they wanted to go.
Beck wondered whether the congressmen were barred because “it is me as someone who holds the Republicans’ feet to the fire” or as retribution for voting against the debt ceiling deal.
I am unable to find a list of the 35 that wanted to attend so I don’t know if any of them voted for the debt ceiling or not. But, what I do know is that if it was indeed Speaker Boehner who stopped this trip, I want to shake his hand.
It is about frickin’ time that someone stand up to these congressman (and ladies too) and say hell no, if you want to jet all over the world you have to pay for it yourself. You see they are not being barred from attending, they are being barred by taking an all expensive paid trip to Israel. The charity that was planning on footing the bill is indeed a 501 (c)3. But what Beck doesn’t fully explain is that they don’t get called lobbyists when they are legally allowed to “educate” people on their particular issue. Whatever that issue may happen to be. For instance, they can hold seminars on the say global warming (a topic that Beck has spoken out against time and again), and give out all kinds of literature on that topic. That literature legally will be allowed to contain which legislation affects their topic. As long as they don’t tell someone directly to contact an elected official or try to contact that official themselves directly on that topic, they are in compliance with the law will be allowed to keep their non-profit tax exempt status. But they can take them on little junkets to the other side of the world and that is perfectly fine. That doesn’t sound a tad like lobbying to you?
I have seen quite a few conservatives all up in arms and calling Boehner a traitor. Seriously? They are legally allowed to indirectly lobby and by paying for this trip to Israel that is exactly what they were trying to do. The trip would have been so short that they wouldn’t have had time to have any meetings with Israeli officials. Basically they would have gotten off the plane, gone to Beck’s rally spent the night in I would presume a pretty expensive hotel room and got back on a plane the next day and flown home. Conservatives have a problem that Boehner put his foot down and said no?
Speaker Boehner let me be the first to shake your hand. They make $174K per year. They can afford a ticket to Israel. We need to take away as many people trying to influence the government as possible. This is why government officials don’t want to leave their jobs. These are exactly the type of perks that average Joe’s don’t get and make being a professional politician so lucrative. Enough already.
Get a grip Beck. This is exactly the type of thing you would be all over if the democrats did it. Is this hypocrisy on your part Glenn or just plain arrogance?
In The Mailbox: 10.31.24
56 minutes ago
9 comments:
Expecting the taxpayers to foot the bill to ship Congressmen to Beck's rally flies in the face of what Beck is preaching.
Hear Hear. This is why I don't listen or watch Beck. Over-reacts, and says stupid things like this often enough. He isn't helping conservatives. I personally regard him as annoying and abrasive to the conservative message.
RE: " Is this hypocrisy on your part Glenn or just plain arrogance?
...both.
LL
Not tax payer funded, lobbyist funded. Just as bad as far as I am concerned. Even worse in some ways. This is why people want to stay in office.
If you know of anyone that agrees with Beck, ask them if they think NARAL or Planned Parenthood are "charities". They are C3's as well.
Hmm. They forgot to mention this on Twitter. Good call, JACG.
Opus:
What really kills me about this whole thing, is that Beck is constantly telling his audience to do their own research. If you look at the website of the "charity" that was going to pay for this trip, they flat out say their goal is to influence government officials.
Someone on facebook told me I must be a bad patriot because I am taking Boehner's side. We had a back and forth, then I asked her if she considered Planned Parenthood a charity. All I have heard since is crickets.
If the people that are sticking up for Beck took five minutes to do even a small amount of research they would see how far off he really is about this.
I also know some things about Beck that is not common knowledge about his rally last year on the mall. I don't want to blog about it because I don't want to betray the confidence of the person who told me, but he is a shameless self promoter. I think he gets out important information at times, but he isn't what his big fans think he is.
I agree. If they really want to go, they should pay for it themselves. It would be a good example to set and people would respect them for doing it.
I respect you for not blogging on the information you found out about Beck's rally, but now that you mentioned it, and I attended the rally, I am really curious.
I will send you an email through facebook so it is private.
Thanks. Looking forward to it.
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