Comments on: Congressional Transparency Reveals… the New Watergate?

By: KateinCanada

KateinCanada — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 19:20:55 +0000

So, if bottled water is a million dollar deal, is there just on supplier with the contract?

By: GhostbusterTX

GhostbusterTX — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:44:55 +0000

Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) – $712.60

By: BodieP

BodieP — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:22:22 +0000

In our house, we drink from the tap, or from Mason jars. Occasionally from our hands, as we dash across running streams. What can I say? The only water bill we have is the one from the city.

By: Punkinbugg

Punkinbugg — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:31:17 +0000

My Texas Rep whose name ends in (R) chugged about $1200 worth of bottled water…, roughly $5/day…, so that’s not too bad.

Personally speaking, I have a Britta water pitcher now, because I was tired of finding half-empty water bottles all over the house.

Now I find half-empty water glasses all over the house.

By: Ladybirddeb

Ladybirddeb — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:07:45 +0000

I’m so surprised that many of these legislators drink any bottled water at all. Most dogs prefer to lap up their water directly from the toilet.

LOL!! Sorry, I just couldn’t resist!

By: strangelet

strangelet — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:02:56 +0000

I think a few of us have taken AKM’s humorously-intended vignette a little too seriously. I’ve never worked in a Congressional office, but I did spend a few decades in private industry, and many office areas have 5-gal water coolers because, inexplicably, the office spaces were not plumbed for wet bars.

Also, too, it is common to provide minimal refreshments at meetings, in meeting rooms that also do not have plumbing. While it would certainly be better to provide pitchers of water, it is a lot simpler to just include some bottled water in the same ice tray as the soft drinks (or, in parts of Europe, the soft drinks and beer).

Since bulk water tends to cost $0.25 to $0.50 a gallon, I assume that the items in the $2.00 range represent 5-gallon bottles for coolers. But, then again, who knows?

By: Texas Escapee

Texas Escapee — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:08:17 +0000

please, “than”, not “then”

By: Fran

Fran — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:47:27 +0000

Very interesting. Somebody in Congresss needs to purpose installing a top of the line filitration system. That would be far more cost effective then paying all of that money for bottled water.

By: pearl89

pearl89 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 02:44:21 +0000

Weli, I did my homestate of NC. NC has 8 democrats and 5 republicans representatives. I do not claim these figures to be accurate because I could feel my brain slowly starting to seize up wile looking a 2000 (give or take a few pages) page document looking for lines that said bottled water. I only wish there had been 8/9 lines…heck, had one rep who had 22 lines of bottled water.

Spending on bottled water for the democrats was $9641.16 for an average per person of $1205.15/yr. For the republicans it was $6577.12 for an average per person of $1315.42/yr.

Of course their were some who spent a lot more than others. Mike McIntyre (D only spent $511.84 per year compared to David Price (D and my representative) spent $2642.52 and Sue Myrick (R) spent $2757.48.

I think some things that should also be taken into consideration are the size of each congressional district and what is in those districts…like David Price which is my representative has 3 major universities plus a lot of businesses as compared to some of our more rural districts. Also, the amount of time in office. It seems to me that the longer someone has been in Congress the more water they seem to consume

I was also a little taken aback by these representatives charging the government for $2.00 bottles of water…geez. One of the NC rep’s Virginia Foxx (R) claimed $1.25& $1.87…how cheap can you get?

By: BodieP

BodieP — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 01:42:02 +0000

Well, I did a little math here. Looks like Don Young consumes four bottles of water every single freaking day of the year. Hope his office is next to the bathroom.