With America's economy in the gutter, lawmakers pledge to cut back?except, apparently, when it comes to fancy trips around the globe at the expense of taxpayers and special interests.
With gas prices pinching the wallet and the national debt mounting, members of Congress proclaim that they feel Americans? pain and are committed to cutting back. Just not one of their favorite perks?globetrotting to far-flung locations at the expense of taxpayers and special interests.
Lawmakers? trips are up sharply during the first five months of 2011, erasing any memory of Hill leaders pledging just last summer to rein in travel costs, a Daily Beast review of congressional trip reports shows.
The pledges of travel austerity have been replaced this spring with fresh images of lawmakers strolling down an ornate European street with their spouses or touring the Bosphorus by boat?all supposedly in the name of doing the people?s business.
?This is an important issue for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that millions of dollars are spent on flying lawmakers all around the world,? says Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group. ?It is a form of influence peddling when sponsored by private entities. When the government pays for it, we need to know that tax dollars are being used wisely instead of funding junkets.?:SIB
Lawmakers can travel at taxpayers' expense or accept free trips to symposiums paid for by academic institutions and think tanks. The latter often gets lawmakers and their family members to exotic destinations for a little food for thought and a whole lot of wining and dining.:scared
Take, for instance, the 20 lawmakers from both parties?with all but one spouse in tow?who were ferried off to Vienna for a weeklong conference on nuclear proliferation. They stayed in style at Intercontinental Hotel.:sadwave:
That trip cost about $225,000 and was paid for by the elite Aspen Institute think tank.
In all, lawmakers have taken more than 200 trips financed by private groups, costing more than $1 million since January. That?s almost double the amount spent during the first five months in 2010 and well above the first five of months of 2007, before Americans were swept into a recession and trillion-dollar-plus budget deficits.
Even some of the new GOP freshmen?who rose to power on a platform of federal frugality?have gotten in on the travel action.:SIB
The C-37 is among the Air Force planes used by high-ranking government officials. (Photo: U.S. Air Force)
Dozens more congressional trips were footed by taxpayers, supposedly in the name of research. Whether a trip is truly a fact-finding mission?or a corporate-sponsored junket or political theater?is often in the eye of the beholder.
Last month, for example, six members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee headed to the Gulf of Mexico to visit an offshore rig, meet with oil industry executives and explore the Louisiana coastline.
Fact-finding didn?t seem paramount to the five Republicans and one Democrat on the trip, however, since the House had already approved legislation to accelerate offshore drilling. The "Offshore Energy Tour" seemed to be more of a political victory lap to set the stage for Republicans to make the 2012 campaign argument that President Obama was unfriendly to the Gulf Coast?s dominant energy industry.
Rep. Fred Upton, the Michigan Republican who chairs the committee?and also went on the Aspen trip to Austria?did not return calls seeking comment.
Unlike regular travelers who find themselves facing $4-per-gallon gasoline heading into the summer, Upton and his five colleagues didn't have to worry personally about the cost of fueling up. Most expenses were covered by a mix of taxpayer and industry dollars. (Chevron, for instance, paid for the lawmakers? helicopter trip to the company's rig.)
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In the meantime this thievery continues right uner out noses.
its pathetic
If we can't abuse our expense accounts
WHY THE FAWK DO WE ALLOW THEM TO !
holy chit , no on cares
no one fawking cares
And the sad things is that there is really nothing the fawk we can do about it.
