BUT REMEMBER, IF YOU WANT TO CUT SPENDING IT’S BECAUSE YOU LIKE THE IDEA OF STARVING CHILDREN: Chelsea’s housing boss was rarely on the job: Just 15 full days in town this year, records show. “The records show he didn’t go to Chelsea at all on almost half the working days in 2011, spending 47 weekdays in Maine and Florida with his top assistant and close personal friend, Linda Thibodeau. He spent another 21 work days at out-of-state conferences from Phoenix to Miami, usually with Thibodeau. . . . The FBI is investigating whether McLaughlin, a former state legislator and longtime Democratic powerbroker, illegally diverted federal funds to his own use. State housing officials tried to stop payment on the checks written to McLaughlin on his last day, but he had already cashed the one for unused vacation time.”