DIVAS: Zinke is just as reckless with taxpayer dollars as Kevin Cramer

(BISMARCK, ND) – Yesterday, Kevin Cramer got a hearty laugh out of his vote to add more than $1.5 trillion dollars to the national debt. So it’s no surprise to us that the keynote speaker for the 2018 North Dakota Republican Party Convention, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, is just as reckless with hard-earned taxpayer dollars as the big-spender himself, Kevin Cramer.

“Ryan Zinke and Kevin Cramer both share an affinity for swindling the American taxpayer so it’s fitting that the North Dakota Republican Party chose such a scandal-plagued Washington insider to keynote their convention,” said Scott McNeil, Executive Director of the North Dakota Democratic-NPL. “From office doors that cost twice as much as the average household income in North Dakota to a tax bill that adds more than a trillion dollars to the national deficit, Zinke and Cramer are two peas in a pod that can’t be trusted with taxpayer dollars.”

Independent watchdogs have raised serious concerns with Zinke’s use of taxpayer resources on personal vacations to Greece and Turkey. And even his home-state newspaper called into question if taxpayers can trust Zinke to be a good steward of their resources after his obscene travel expenses on the government’s dime.

In addition to Zinke’s jet-setting, he’s commissioned a commemorative coin to be personalized for his tenure at Interior. He also came under fire for spending a whopping $139,000 to replace doors in his office. For context, the median household income in North Dakota is less than $60,000 and the average home costs approximately $165,000.

Whether it’s Ryan Zinke or Kevin Cramer, North Dakotans can always trust them to put their own personal interests over that of the American taxpayer.