This is a new one.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Assume Deer Dead) participated in an interview with the Des Moines Register editorial board where he said one reason he never held a hearing on Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland is because it would cost too much.
Grassley was asked what harm it could do to simply hold a hearing and this was apparently the best response he could come up with.
GRASSLEY: “Sure, sure. Umm, I suppose, the tradition is – and I’m not sure I would follow this tradition because I know who I have on my staff, I know how deep you have to go into going through a person’s record, in order to hold a hearing that’s worthwhile. And so you appropriate – you get special, not appropriations – you get ‘special’ from the rules committee; additional money to hire additional legal people. My staff tells me that’s about a half a million to $750,000 to hire people to maybe work for three or four months to do it.
“And so when 52 senators say they aren’t going to take it up, should I spend that money and have a hearing?”
You could say $750,000 is a lot of money to pay for holding a hearing on a nominee that won't be confirmed, but how many millions of dollars has the GOP wasted over the past 8 years?
How many millions were wasted chasing the ghosts of Solyndra? How much money did they spend trying to find the smoking gun from Fast and Furious? How many hearings did they hold on the fake IRS scandal only to find that more liberal that conservative groups were flagged for extra scrutiny? The GOP has wasted tens of millions of dollars on Benghazi alone, and as of this writing the Select Planned Parenthood Committee is still a thing.
How many millions of dollars did the GOP waste on defending the unconstitutional Defense of Marriage Act?
How much money did they waste by shutting down the federal government?
To say that we can't afford to hold a hearing on a Supreme Court nominee, after all frivolous expenses the GOP has billed taxpayers for, is absurd.