| ► Does State Sen. Doug LaMalfa deserve to be elected to Congress? |
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Does State Sen. Doug LaMalfa deserve to be elected to Congress? 
Since 2003, State Sen. Doug LaMalfa has had his significant snout firmly implanted in the public trough. From 2003 to 2008 he was a member of the state assembly from District 2, which is in the Oroville area.
In 2008 Doug was termed out and was prohibited form running for a fifth term in the assembly. In November 2009, Doug was elected to the State Senate. Doug is now asking the voters to elect him to the U.S. Congress.
Doug would have the voters believe that he’s a die-in-the-wool fiscal conservative who is intent on protecting the taxpayers from waste, fraud and/or abuse of their hard earned money. Doug’s claimed fiscal conservatism is basically a sham. The one person that Doug firmly believes cannot be held responsible for waste, abuse and/or fraud involving taxpayer expenditures is Doug.
During his 8 years in the Calfiornia Assembly Doug found it acceptable to hose the taxpayers for the costs to provide him with a luxury ride of his choosing. Doug’s choice in 2003 was a Mustang Mach 1 that cost the taxpayers $28,957.14. The text box below shows the total costs of providing Prince Doug with a Mustang Muscle Car. It should be noted that the Miles Per Gallon is estimated at 19 mpg.
IRS Publication 15-B treats any personal use of a employer provided vehicle as tax income. The same is true for the State of California. It would be laughable for LaMalfa to claim that he never used the Mustang Mach I for personal use. In addition, the IRS required that LaMalfa maintain logs differentiating personal verses official use of the Mach 1.
When I requested the logs from the State Assembly a couple of years ago, they responded by saying no such documents exited. Therefore, one must assume that Doug is in possession of them.
It is absolutely astounding to me that a so-called public servant actually believed that it was acceptable to have the taxpayers pay for him to cruise in a Mustang Muscle car. This type of conduct gives a new meaning to “arrogant public servant.”
Since Doug claims to be a really honest person, then I should think he’d have no qualms about making his tax returns for 2003 through 2008 available for public viewing to prove that he did in fact report and pay federal and state taxes on the income he realized from the personal use of the Mustang Mach 1.
Of course if he refuses to so act, I can’t imagine why anyone regardless of his/her party affiliation would vote for him to be their representative in Congress. Clearly, a refusal to release his tax returns could mean that he has something to hide, which would be that he’s a serial tax scofflaw.
Lastly, since members of Congress can order any luxury car of their choosing, I'm sure that given his track record that if Doug's elected to Congress he'll immediately order another Muscle car; however, this would be at the expense of all the taxpayers.
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