In practice elected representatives have to pay a lot out of pocket. NYC is a high rent area. Washington DC is a high rent area. Commuting between the 2 isn’t cheap. Nor is wardrobe.
There’s a reason most folks in Congress are independently wealthy to one extent or another.
This is a problem that more representatives should have.
If I lived in DC, she would be welcome to sleep on my sofa.
Nm
And that would work so well for the newly elected members from Hawaii and Alaska and North Dakota and Wyoming - just keep your home and commute! Eminently reasonable !
And I never understood the outcry over this practice?
She is candy for the eyes, no doubt.
I never got a free stay. But always reasonable.
Exactly. A DC-NYC commute would be doable weekly, but not daily. And that’s not evening taking into account that late night House sessions, committee meetings, etc can and are followed by morning House sessions, caucus meetings, etc.
If she stays at somebody’s house, there are ethics concerns. I don’t know how much they would matter in theory or in practice. Either way, there would be news articles at the very least.
Swear to god, I would be a TOTAL gentleman.
I would even provide a hot, home-cooked dinner on every evening she was not called upon to whoop it up with lobbyists in fashionable bars.
Geesh guys and you all wonder why we get a reputation here at the Dope. Besides it seems there is a Partner already in the picture. Daaang, there goes my move on my Boricua homegirl…
“Session days” are those where the House comes to order to actually do work on the floor of the chamber. But committee hearings, briefings, caucus/conference gatherings, meetings with fellow Members, cultivating those who can make your life easier or tougher, etc. happens through the rest of the week (except during actual recess). Plus federal legislators receive visits and attend meetings not related only to their home districts, and those are not going to chase her home. If you wanna Be In The Room Where It Happens, then you are in or around DC at least half the days of the year.
Now, that said, nothing requires her to live inside the Beltway nor prevents a Member from limiting themselves to a small efficiency somewhere in the outer MD/VA 'burbs from whence they’ll head back home for the weekend. But that’s a different decision and if you are functionally unemployed or living only off your partner’s income who already has to pay for one home in a high-rent city, it’s a tougher task until the checks start coming in.
**
Northern Piper** - spare a thought too for the delegates from Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Marianas. Cripes what a schlep.
Congress has a sexual harassment problem and female staffers warn each other to be particulalry careful around congressmen who sleep in their office. Congress has a sexual harassment problem, lawmakers and staffers say | CNN Politics
It’s a place of business, there is no need to blur those lines. She should do what John Boehner did, he literally lived in the basement apartment of a lobbyist’s home. What’s wrong with that?
Sounds like the Congress. Borrow money and hope that money trickles down later. 
I like the point she was making that one of the reasons for the biggest income inequality in the country’s history is that poor people are not afforded the opportunity to represent others in Congress because of the inherent bias toward rich people.
Ocasio-Cortez’ tweet from the article in the OP:
She’s been very transparent about her struggles with money on the campaign trail and some of the ways she got around them. In one interview, she gave the story of a constituent giving her the dress she was wearing to wear to interviews because the constituent didn’t fit into it, so the constituent thought the congresswoman might use it.
Both of you, leave this sort of shit alone. Have you learned nothing? Did we not just have a board-splosion about this sort of nonsense?
Anymore of this sort of objectification from anyone and I’ll break out the warnings.
I think it would have to be counted as a contribution (the value of the rent). Not sure what the rules are on that but they can be strict and creating an appearance of owing something to a lobbyist is likely not her best move.
But seriously there are plenty of simpatico folk in the D.C. area who I am sure would be thrilled to have her as a three month house guest. And friends in the progressive caucus who could front her a loan if not offer her a guest room.
I suspect this is posturing more than a real issue.
I was kidding. I had many, many problems with Boehner living with lobbyists while he was speaker. He paid rent, but it wasn’t market price.
$174k in DC is not a “massive salary”. It’s OK, but she’s not going to be getting rich in the next 2 years. Just a WAG, but I bet the average lawyer or lobbyist in DC makes way more than that.
My uncle’s got a barn!
It’s irrelevant that it’s not as much as others make. It’s more than double the average Washington DC income, which is among the highest in the nation. Even in DC that would qualify as massive and it’s certainly enough to cover rent within the capital.