It feels quite obligatory and reaching to make the connection between the Tea Party’s idea of fiscal responsibility and the situation with Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL.)
Walsh has three kids, and according to his ex, the Tea Partier owes his brood a staggering $117K in back child support payments- a figure that was current eight months ago. Laura Walsh, the congressman’s ex, detailed how Walsh can find the cash for more desirable expenses than housing and feeding his three kids:
The suit charges that Walsh enjoyed foreign vacations with his new girlfriend while claiming he couldn’t pay support for his three kids because he was out of work.
Walsh, during a CNN interview Thursday, didn’t deny that he owes six figures in child support or explain why he hasn’t paid, but instead argued that his personal financial troubles mean he’s more attuned to struggling average Americans.
Even as he acknowledged depriving his kids of basic needs, Walsh fumed that the publicity surrounding his failure to support his kids was a calculated smear campaign:
“It’s interesting that it just broke right now as I’m out there trying my best to fight this president and fight the Democrats and solve this debt crisis,” he said on CNN’s “Newsroom.”
In one filing, Laura Walsh’s attorneys wrote: “The apparent availability of large sums of money from either his employment, his family or his campaign has allowed him to live quite a comfortable lifestyle, while at the same time, due to his failure to pay child support or any of his share of the education costs or medical expenses, Laura and his children were denied any of these advantages.”
Court records also show Walsh objected to paying for a summer camp or a homecoming suit for his children, the Sun-Times wrote.
Well- I suppose if anything, this Tea Partier is consistent on the issue of stiffing, and practices what he preaches.