Department of Transportation Secretary (seriously, it’s been six months and I still can't figure out how he's qualified for that job) Pete Buttigieg is getting blasted on social media after his husband, Chasten, complained to the Washington Post that the D.C. apartment the couple shares costs a whopping $4,500 a month, and – egads – it doesn’t even have a den!!
In the interview, Chasten, who’s currently unemployed, whined that even with his husband’s $220,000-plus taxpayer-funded salary, the couple can barely afford the one-bedroom, 800-square foot luxury digs they’ve rented in a high-end building in the nation’s capital (that’s on top, of course, of the Lake Michigan house they already own). They chose the location, apparently, because it offered the style and the security the couple was looking for - a totally subjective factor which apparently doesn't come into play when complaining about how much they had to fork out for it.
"We couldn’t afford the one-bedroom-plus-den," Chasten complained.
"We’re doing fine for ourselves, and [yet] the city is almost unaffordable, which tells you how extremely unaffordable it is for many people," he went on, without mentioning that most ordinary people probably aren't setting their standards quite so high.
While rent in D.C. is, like in so many urban areas, pretty high, it’s far from totally unaffordable – and it definitely doesn’t require $4,500 a month. In fact, according to WTOP, the average rent for a 1-bedroom in D.C. is about $2,160, while two bedrooms will run you closer to $2,900.
And Twitter users were quick to point it out.
Hilarious how Mr. Wine Cave Buttigieg is whining that he ONLY makes $221,400 a year.
— Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) July 26, 2021
The problem isn't DC's real estate market (which I've personally lived with and in for years)...it's that Dems elites are incredibly fiscally irresponsible...even in their personal lives. https://t.co/okoo2pwlf9
Two things can be true at once:
— Ryan Marsan (@RyanMarsan) July 26, 2021
1) DC’s rent prices are out of control, pushing low-income and BIPOC folks out of the city at alarming rates.
2) The Buttigieg’s could have EASILY found a one bedroom plus den in a secure building for WAY under $4500. They just chose to splurge. https://t.co/WNB0C1Y6FE
DC's rent is very very high but the idea that you can't find a nice one-bedroom here for significantly less (and I mean thousands of dollars less) than $4,500 per month is just gaslighting. https://t.co/sjCQh5lyBw
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) July 26, 2021
This is more than double what a 1-bedroom in a high security building costs in Navy Yard, where the Transportation Department is actually located! https://t.co/baqVuzmIUN https://t.co/EvAQiQGO1v
— Tiana Lowe (@TianaTheFirst) July 26, 2021
The rent in DC is very high, but I live in a one-bedroom plus den and pay nowhere near $4,500 per month. https://t.co/gstpKkEYjh
— Julia Manchester (@JuliaManch) July 26, 2021
Then again, this is coming from the husband of a Transportation Secretary who thinks it's reasonable to tax people by the miles they drive. So we're not exactly working with rational folks who understand the plight of the common man.