You And I Fund Senators' Official Portraits

Unlike official Presidential portraits, largely funded by donations, we the taxpayers shell out the bucks so that politicians on Capitol Hill, as well as other bureaucrats, can burnish their perceived legacies.

From CNSNews.com:

Portraits of Senate leaders are almost always paid for with taxpayer money, at a cost of up to $70,000 each. By contrast, portraits of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush – unveiled on Friday [December 19] – were paid for with private donations.

[...]

In the Senate, portraits traditionally are commissioned for the majority and minority leaders, and former members who have been out of the Senate for 25 years who are chosen by a special commission of the Senate Rules Committee, said Donald Ritchie, the Senate historian.

The funds for those paintings come from a taxpayer-funded curator’s budget....

[...]

...[T]he tradition of portraiture of U.S. government officials goes back more than 200 years and...many lawmakers think the tradition is a way to maintain continuity between offices.

[...]

Many federal agencies also commission portraits for their top officials, a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget...

Government waste knows no bounds.