staff salary expenditures for the house government reform committee (the committee holding the roger clemens hearings) totaled $6.39 million through the first three quarters of 2007, which puts the year’s total at about $8.5 million. that sets the base day-to-day operating cost of the government reform committee at $23,000 and change. add in another $165,000 for each of the forty-one members of congress sitting on the committee and that bumps the cost up to $42,000.

wednesday, the american people paid $42,000 to find out that roger clemens’ wife tried HGH five years ago. henry waxman and the rest of the government reform committee can and should find better ways to spend our money. for starters, how about looking into their colleagues in the senate and why they’ve so eagerly piggy-backed onto the white house’s plan to extend the protect america act? the house stood tall on protect america today and deserve a pat on the back for that. now if they’d only call an end to the roger clemens dog-and-pony show…

resources:
+write chairman waxman and let him know you’d prefer stricter oversight of the executive branch, not-as-strict oversight of roger clemens’ wife’s stomach
+check up on who’s giving money to government reform committee members, courtesy of opensecrets.org
+unrelated shoutout to uno the beagle. as a beagle owner i must give props.