JEC Report: Cost Of Vanity Projects Could Cover 600 Million School Lunches, Medical Expenditures For More Than 88,000 Veterans For One Year, Or Hiring Of Nearly 30,000 Schoolteachers Or Firefighters
This week, the Joint Economic Committee (JEC) – Minority issued a new report with calculations that find that President Trump’s vanity projects – including construction of the new White House ballroom and the no-bid contract to paint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, among others – are expected to cost more than $1.8 billion. Using this total, the Committee created an Interactive Cost Calculator where users can explore how this $1.8 billion could instead be spent to lower costs and help the American people.
In response to the new report that highlights President Trump’s egregiously misplaced priorities, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand issued the following statement:
“The president of the United States serves the people, not the other way around. Right now, working families are struggling to afford groceries, gas, and sky-high health care bills. They want their president bringing down costs and putting money back in their pockets, not wasting time and taxpayer dollars on self-serving insanity. I urge this administration to end its wasteful spending and instead support the working families who are paying the price for the president’s absurdity.”
Key examples from the report of what $1.8 billion for Trump’s vanity projects could instead pay for include:
- More than 600 million school lunches
- About 12 million people’s electric bills for one month
- The medical expenditures for more than 88,000 veterans for one year
- The hiring of more than 27,000 schoolteachers or 29,000 firefighters
- More than 35 million tanks of gas for a typical sedan
While President Trump pledged not to use taxpayer dollars for construction of his White House ballroom, he then broke that promise by using funds for the Secret Service to pay for parts of the ballroom. He also continues to oversee new projects and events – including his proposed Triumphal Arch, the retrofit of the new Qatari Air Force One plane, and more – that require considerable funding.
Senator Gillibrand has been fighting back against President Trump’s vanity projects and self-promotion at taxpayers’ expense. In April, she introduced the Halting Unilateral Money and Building Labeling by Egotistical (HUMBLE) Presidents Act, which would bar the use of a sitting president’s name, image, likeness, or signature to decorate or designate federal property, assets, or currency. She has also highlighted how the $1 billion Republicans sought for the president’s ballroom could instead support law enforcement across the country, and called out how President Trump and congressional Republicans have made life $5,000+ more expensive for average households in New York.
Find the Committee’s full report here and explore the Interactive Cost Calculator here.
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