MICHELE NORRIS, host: So politicians at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue are eating a lot of pizza and working around the clock on the debt ceiling standoff - or so we thought. Many have still found time to host fundraising events, including some events that are directly linked to the debt standoff. As of now, there are even fundraisers on the docket for August 2nd, the debt ceiling deadline.
Brody Mullins wrote about this today in the Wall Street Journal. And he joins me now. Welcome to the program.
BRODY MULLINS: Thanks for having me.
NORRIS: Glad you could come into the studio. So let me understand this. It looks like lawmakers are spending all their time trying to work out this deal, but perhaps not. They seem to still be finding time for fundraisers, even this week?
MULLINS: Yeah. Well, Congress is really raising money constantly. It's almost every day of the year they're raising money. A lot of these events were planned a while ago before they knew the debt vote was going to be very soon. But what I found amazing is I added up all the fundraisers taking place just among House members and it was more than 200 fundraisers in about a two-week period.
NORRIS: What kinds of events?
MULLINS: All sorts of things. There's golf fundraisers. There were a bunch of people going to Washington Nationals' games. There were people going to concerts at the Verizon Center. There's people doing just regular breakfast, lunch, dinners events on Capitol Hill.
NORRIS: And are these cases where the lawmaker is actually at the event or are they in absentia?
MULLINS: They are supposed to be at the event. If it's an event for the member of Congress's own re-election account, they will be there. Some big names like John Boehner and Eric Cantor in the Republican Party often host events for newer members of Congress. Mr. Cantor and Mr. Boehner have both canceled events that they were scheduled to go to because they are right in the middle of these negotiations.
NORRIS: Are there specific events that you could describe that...
MULLINS: Yeah, there is one, interesting one, next Tuesday. A congressman from Nebraska is having a golf fundraiser at one of the nicer courses around here, at TPC Avenel, which is a pretty fancy course. I think its $500 for a round of golf with him. And those events, since a member of Congress can't play with everyone, the member of Congress usually just plays one hole. They'll play like a seventh hole and every group that comes through will sort of play that hole with him.
Or he'll go to one tee bock and kind that take a swing with everyone since he can't play with the whole crowd there. That's interesting because that's a long event. It's a whole round of golf and it's taking place the day that happens to be the day that the world is supposed to explode when this, you know, debt ceiling passes.
NORRIS: So there are events scheduled for August 2nd, the day that we slide potentially into default?
MULLINS: Yes, there's dozens of fundraising event scheduled for Tuesday. Now, to be fair, a lot of these events were planned months ago.
NORRIS: Is this a topic of discussion on Capitol Hill? While they're haggling over taxpayer money they're still raising their own? Does this seem at all unusual or even unseemly?
MULLINS: You know, fundraising on Capitol Hill is just part of the culture. Outside of Washington, it definitely seems unseemly. However, raising money is now a 365-day a year business. Members of Congress need to raise one, two, $3 million.
NORRIS: Because particularly in the House, they're up every two years.
MULLINS: Particularly in the House, they're constantly running for re-election and therefore constantly having to raise money.
NORRIS: Brody Mullins, thanks so much for coming in.
MULLINS: Thank you.
NORRIS: Brody Mullins writes for the Wall Street Journal.
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