Rep. Jack Kingston’s Free Lunch Hypocrisy
Meet the new poster boy for Republican “entitlement for me but not for thee”: Congressman Jack Kingston.
Weeks after Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) made headlines for suggesting low-income students sweep cafeteria floors to learn there’s “no such thing as free lunch,” Savannah TV station WSAV 3 looked at the “free lunches” Kingston himself has received as a member of Congress.
There’s no precise way to count the number of lunches Kingston has enjoyed on taxpayer dollars, but the station took a look at expense reports and disclosures to uncover staggering figures from the congressman’s three years in office.
According to the station’s investigation, Kingston and his staff have expensed $4,182 worth of “meals for business purposes,” and recorded $4,289.33 in free meals from third-party interest groups, including the Congressional Institute and the Georgia Bankers Association.
As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Kingston has traveled to four continents, racking up $24,313 in per diem allowances. While the allowances were allotted for more than just lunch money, midday meals were included.
