Tammy Duckworth’s $2.5 Million Hawaii Junket

Republican Congressman Joe Walsh (IL-8^th)  has to be smiling today. On September 5, the Washington Examiner reported that Democrat candidate Tammy Duckworth, who formerly served as Undersecretary of the VA was heavily involved in the planning of a $2.5 million boondoggle to Hawaii. This is now the third such conference that has been uncovered during Ms. Duckworth’s tenure at the VA, which cumulatively amount to over $8 million in wasted VA funds.

The Examiner reports the Department of Veteran Affairs spent $2.5 million on a lavish six-day event in Tammy’s home state of Hawaii. Going further, The Washington Examiner report indicated Tammy Duckworth was “in charge of planning the games.” Expenses included paying $1 million to an event planning firm, $500,000 for rooms and conference space and $229,000 for meal and gift cards for attendees.

In reaction, Congressman Walsh stated, “I find it so disturbing that with so many of our nation’s heroes in need, Tammy Duckworth thought it would be wise to spend $2.5 million on a six-day trip to Hawaii. It highlights how careless bureaucrats, like Duckworth, are with our taxpayer dollars. I want to know if Tammy thinks that spending $1 million on an event coordinator was the wisest use of VA funds, or does she not agree with me that those funds would have been better used on actual veterans who bravely served this country?”

Prior to serving as a bureaucrat in Washington, Tammy Duckworth served as former Governor Rod Blagojevich’s Director of the Illinois Department of Veteran’s Affairs, where she began her disregard for taxpayer dollars. An Auditor General’s report indicated Duckworth’s Illinois VA had over 12 instances of non-compliance of state law, including misusing her official government vehicle to attend political campaign events.

Walsh concluded, “Given her history of wasting taxpayer dollars on excessive purchases, how can we trust Ms. Duckworth to get Washington’s spending under control after four years of trillion dollar deficits? A big spending bureaucrat is now what we need to solve Washington’s spending crisis.”

Is Duckworth who the people of Illinois 8^th District want to represent them in Washington?  We doubt it, considering Duckworth is a staunch Obama supporter, especially after the Department of Labor reported only 96,000 jobs were created in August, and the unemployment rate lowered slightly to 8.1% – only because more and more Americans have quit looking for work. The workforce participation rate fell to 63.5%, the lowest in 30 years. The government also said 41,000 fewer jobs were created in June and July than first estimated. The economy has added just 139,000 jobs a month since the beginning of the year below 2011′s average of 153,000.

Duckworth, following Barack Obama’s lead, has said the horrendous job figures are acceptable.

In reaction to these numbers, Congressman Joe Walsh (IL-8) released the following statement:

“Not only is this the 43rd straight month that unemployment has stayed above 8 percent, but it’s also the weakest labor market in 30 years. How many more months of this do we need before Tammy Duckworth wakes up and realizes that big government is not the answer?

“Unfortunately, big government policies are the only polices my opponent supports. She’s spent so much time campaigning in Beverly Hills and New York City that she’s lost touch with 8th district families and businesses. She actually thinks this is a good economy and we are better off than we were four years ago. But the families and businesses I’ve been talking to are struggling and need government off their backs.

“My opponent’s policies, which overspend, over-regulate, and raise taxes on small businesses, have destroyed enough 8th district jobs already. It’s time to get big government out of the way.”