Gage Skidmore - CC license
Don’t let this one fly over your head-- it’s plane to see that Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt and Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke are in trouble with their spending habits because now they’re being officially investigated for it. Let’s recap.
We’ve already seen Scott Pruitt take flight on spending $25,000 of taxpayer money to build a private security phone booth to conduct his sketchy business in and spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on private plane use.
Ryan Zinke has been racking up his gold star frequent flier points on taxpayer-funded luxury flights too, recently chartering a private flight on an oil executive’s plane, leaving hardworking American taxpayers with the bill of $12,375.
This weekend, his home state took notice, including Montana’s Billings-Gazette, saying “Apparently, spending more than $12,000 to jet home to Montana to spend the night is no big deal to Zinke who, in his brief time in Congress as the Treasure State's lone representative, railed against government waste and excess spending.”
To keep the turbulence going, Zinke’s travel discrepancies are raising questions about his wife’s role in the department. It seems that Zinke’s wife has secretly been joining meetings and flights-- but just to remind you, “Lola Zinke, who is the campaign chair for conservative Montana businessman Troy Downing’s U.S. Senate bid, holds no official position in the Interior Department and is not part of the Trump administration in any capacity.”
Meanwhile, Pruitt has been meeting with the heads of auto, mining, and fossil fuel industry associations for months, shortly before making decisions that ultimately benefited those groups. Check out his calendar here. Note that less than 1 percent of Pruitt’s meetings have been with environmental groups. Pruitt clearly missed his connection-- he’s even undermining Trump on renewable fuels.
Looks like Americans are getting jet lagged with these snakes on planes traveling luxuriously on the taxpayer dime because so far five investigations have been opened up on the entire Trump cabinet’s travel habits. If you ask us, it seems like Scott Pruitt’s and Ryan’s Zinke’s over-sized baggage in the overhead compartment is about to come crashing down. Hopefully they’ve been sitting in the exit row, because it’s clear that they should not be leading these vital agencies and need to de-plane immediately.
Fasten your seatbelts and stay tuned for more on this bumpy ride!