The political action committee for Democratic Senator Kyrsten Sinema spent lavishly during a fundraising trip to Europe last October amid negotiations for Democrats’s Build Back Better negotiations.
The Arizona Democrat, whom many in her own party criticise for her support for the filibuster and criticism of parts of Democrats’s proposed Build Back Better legislation.
Ms Sinema said she opposed the initial $3.5 trillion price tag, which was the proposed cost for the bill before it was pared down to $1.75 trillion. She had also opposed part of the legislation to allow Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices before reaching a deal that one Democratic aide called a “Trojan horse devised by Big Pharma”.
Ms Sinema also hesitated to give specifics on details she wanted in the legislation until the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed, Politico reported.
At the same time, Ms Sinema racked up a big win when the House and Senate passed the infrastructure bill she negotiated with Republican Sen Rob Portman of Ohio, which Mr Biden signed into law.
All the while, Ms Sinema seemed to reap some major fundraising rewards. The latest Federal Election Commission report from her Getting Stuff Done PAC showed that it had a total of $477,500 in receipts. In August, the PAC received at $2500 from pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company’s PAC and in November, after she had reached the deal on prescription drugs with the White House, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. PAC cut her a check for $2,500.
Similarly, Ms Sinema’s PAC received a total of $5,000 from Fox News’s parent corporation Fox Corporation’s PAC. It also received $5,000 from Comcast Corp. & NBC Universal’s PAC.
In October, the Arizona Democrat also traveled to Europe where her PAC spent money at locations in London and Paris.
In London, Ms Sinema’s PAC spent $1228.49 in event catering services at Pied a Terre, a French restaurant with a Michelin Star. Similarly, it spent $985.60 at sketch, a restaurant in the wealthy Mayfair area of London. One meeting meal at the Slug and Lettuce cost $56.48 while another meal at Domino Room at Cafe Royal went was expensed for $287.46. The PAC also spent $1360.33 with Crawford Cars Ltd. for a car service.
The PAC spent a total of $2784.97 at Le Roch Hotel & Spa, a five-star hotel in Paris for lodging. It also spent $325.82 at Buddha-Bar in the city for event catering. It also spent $150.65 at Anchora St Honor in Paris for catering.
Plenty of politicians raise money offshores with US citizens. As The New York Timesreported at the time, Sen Gary Peters of Michigan, who is chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was in Europe around the same time.
Ms Sinema did not respond to a question about this from The Independent as she walked onto the Senate floor and an email has been sent to her Senate office.
