ICYMI: Ernst Says Bag the Government Swag

WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), known as the Senate’s leading foe of wasteful government spending, is continuing her efforts to make Washington squeal.

Ernst put forward a bill—the Stop Wasteful Advertising by the Government Act (SWAG Act)­­—to prohibit tax dollars from being spent on “mascots” and swag to promote government agencies and programs and to require the disclosure of all propaganda paid for by the public. Last Sunday, Full Measure covered the SWAG Act. Click the video below to watch the segment.

Click here or on the image above to watch the full interview w/ Full Measure. 

A portion of the interview is below.

Sen. Ernst: “Do we really need a physical mascot out there, you know, going to parades or what? I don't think that's appropriate.”

Sen. Ernst: “Overall on mascots the federal government has spent over $250,000, a quarter of a million dollars, on mascots nobody can name or even identify. There are things we should be spending our dollars on, but not this. These mascots aren't memorable. People don't know who they are, what they're trying to teach us they don’t care about them and yet we continue to spend money on them.”

Sen. Ernst: “The federal government has what I call mission creep, and we start to spend dollars on things that aren't really our mission as a federal government. We have gone through this year, after year, after year. An agency will develop a mascot. Nobody pays attention. The next agency will do that. They'll start spending dollars in areas they shouldn't be spending dollars. It's okay for one agency, so the next gets away with it. We've got to stop that. We've got to stop the wasteful spending.”

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To read and watch the full interview, click here.

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