AOC Under Fire for Misusing Taxpayer Dollars?
Radical Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is in the hot seat again. This time, she’s facing an ethics complaint for allegedly abusing her taxpayer-funded member allowance.
A watchdog group called Americans for Public Trust (APT) is not taking any chances. They are demanding the House launch a probe into whether AOC misused her funds for personal perks.
APT isn’t playing around. They sent a letter over to the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) on Tuesday, questioning “several troubling expenses” that they claim point to misuse.
The complaint centers on accusations that AOC used the Member Representational Allowance (MRA) for things that have nothing to do with official duties. Instead, she reportedly spent money on items like “dance classes.”
The rules are clear. Each member gets an MRA strictly for official business. The Congressional Research Service explains that these funds “may not be used for personal or campaign purposes.” Yet here we have AOC allegedly dipping into those funds for personal expenses.
For example, AOC reportedly made a payment of $3,700 to a “Juan D Gonzalez” and another for $850 to “Bombazo Dance Co Inc.” Both charges were labeled as “training.” She even spent $3,384.74 on food at a Mexican restaurant using taxpayer money.
The congresswoman fired back on social media. In a post on X addressing claims that she’s “wasting tax dollars,” AOC was blunt. She wrote, “None of this is taxpayer money, this is an FEC filing.”
She didn’t stop there, adding, “Be loud and wrong about something else. Try again next time.”
But APT isn’t backing down. They fired back at her claims in their filing, calling her assertions not only “troubling” but outright incorrect. The filing argues that either AOC can’t tell the difference between campaign funds and her MRA, or worse, she knew these expenses were personal and should have been dealt with through her campaign funds and reported to the FEC.
Caitlin Sutherland, executive director of Americans for Public Trust, hit it hard when she said: “Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s troubling payments from her taxpayer funded account for activities such as dance classes should be investigated. In the era of reining in government spending, the American people deserve to know lawmakers are being good stewards of their tax dollars.”
This isn’t the first time AOC has faced ethics heat. In 2023, she was lambasted by the Heritage Foundation for allegedly “falsely accusing” and “defaming” Chaya Raichik, the creator of the Libs of TikTok account on X. She also came under fire for an earlier ethics probe over “impermissible gifts” from her trip to the Met Gala in 2021.
Critics say enough is enough. Taxpayer money should be handled with care, not squandered on questionable expenses and personal benefits. As the investigation looms, Republicans and other fiscal conservatives are calling for strict accountability in Washington.
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