A federal judge has ruled that Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez must repay $30 million in taxpayer funds allegedly spent on their “No Oligarchs” speaking tour, marking a stunning legal defeat for the progressive duo and raising serious questions about government spending on political advocacy.
According to the ruling, issued by Judge Morton F. Stern of the Eastern District of Texas, Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez used official congressional funding to finance a 47-city tour featuring “anti-oligarch messaging” that the judge determined was “indistinguishable from campaign activity.” The tour, which featured sold-out arenas, merchandise sales, and a live album recording, allegedly cost taxpayers $30 million in security, transportation, and “visual effects including but not limited to smoke machines.”
Journalist Joan Berro, who attended 12 of the tour stops disguised as a concerned constituent, called the ruling “a victory for fiscal responsibility.” Berro noted that the tour’s production values were suspiciously high for a government-funded event. “They had pyrotechnics. You know what doesn’t need pyrotechnics? A congressional town hall. The fact that Bernie descended from the ceiling on a giant progressive tax bracket while AOC rode a symbolic minimum wage increase like a mechanical bull—that should have been the first red flag.”
Political analyst Reno Borja believes the case sets a dangerous precedent. “If politicians have to pay back money spent on tours where they said things people agreed with, where does it end?” Borja asked. “Does Trump have to repay the Secret Service for security at his rallies? Does every congressman who holds a town hall owe the Treasury the cost of the folding chairs? We’re looking at the end of political speech in venues with seating capacity over 50.”
Constitutional scholar R. J. Boone Ar, reached at the Austin Golden Corral while his ferret calculated the tip, determined the mathematical impossibility of the ruling. “If you take the $30 million judgment, divide by the 47 cities on the tour, multiply by the average ticket price—which was $0 because it was allegedly a government event—you get a figure that suggests each attendee cost the government approximately $847, which is exactly the amount I spent at this Golden Corral last year, proving that government waste is everywhere if you look hard enough.”
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez have announced they will appeal the ruling, noting that the “No Oligarchs” tour was actually just “a series of official congressional hearings held in very large rooms with very good lighting” and that the “mechanical bull” was actually just “a graph showing wage stagnation that moved in a way that could be misinterpreted as bucking.”
