Draining the Swamp Watch

From Slate, via LGM:

Whitefish Energy, which at the time of the Hurricane Maria’s landfall had only two full-time employees, now has by far the largest contract of any company involved in Puerto Rico’s recovery, and, according to reporting from the Daily Beast, is primarily financed by a firm run by a major Trump donor who has connections to several members of his administration.

The contract has also raised eyebrows because the company is based in Whitefish, Montana, the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke (population: 7,436). Zinke’s office told the Washington Post that Zinke knows the company’s CEO because the town is a place where “everybody knows everybody” but that Zinke had no role in the deal.

. . .

The $300 million Whitefish contract sets hourly rates at $330 for site supervisors and $227 for journeyman linemen, with rates even higher for subcontractors: $462 per hour for supervisors and $319 for linemen. It also includes $332 nightly fees for each worker and $80 a day for food.

That's . . . really good money for a lineman or a supervisor.  For comparison, The Penny Hoarder touts lineman jobs as a good way to earn a living, earning an hourly rate of $30/hr.  But to be fair, linemen working in Puerto Rico are basically working in a disaster zone, so it's reasonable that they would demand more pay.

Of course, linemen doing the same job in Florida, in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, get a base hourly rate of $50/hr, which jumps to $75/hr for overtime and $100/hr on Sundays.  So even taking the dangerous and difficult working conditions into account, the money the Whitefish linemen are getting in Puerto Rico is --- exorbitant.

And Trump's supporters believe that he's 'draining the swamp'.