Do What I Say, Not As I Do... The New Motto Of Congress?

Congress's Travel Tab Swells
Spending on Taxpayer-Funded Trips Rises Tenfold; From Italy to the Galápagos
JULY 2, 2009
WALL STREET JOURNAL

...Hundreds of lawmakers traveled overseas in 2008 at a cost of about $13 million. That's a 50% jump since Democrats took control of Congress two years ago.

...Some members of Congress have complained in recent months about chief executives of bailed-out banks, insurance companies and car makers who sponsored corporate trips to resorts or used corporate jets for their own travel.

In mid-June, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D., Hawaii) led a group of a half-dozen senators and their spouses on a four-day trip to France for the biennial Paris Air Show. An itinerary for the event shows that lawmakers flew on the Air Force's version of the Boeing 737, which costs $5,700 an hour to operate. They stayed at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand Hotel, which advertises rooms from $460 a night.

The lawmakers were invited to a dinner party at the U.S. Embassy and had cocktails at a private party at the Eiffel Tower. Mr. Inouye attended a dinner sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association, a U.S. trade group. Another senator on the trip, Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, took a cruise on the River Seine with defense-industry executives and elected officials from Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

Mr. Inouye and Mr. Shelby declined to comment.

The hypocrisy of these criminals we elect is outrageous. They should have to pay their own travel expenses except for the expense of traveling to and from their district on a weekly basis (IN COACH - NOT FIRST CLASS - AND MOST CERTIANLY NOT ON A CHARTERED PRIVATE PLANE MS. PELOSI).

I recognize that $13,000,000 is not a big number when discussing up to $9,000,000,000,000 in debt. That is the problem! These people think, "What's $10,000 or $20,000 of taxpayer money when the budget is over a trillion dollars?" The numbers are so large their pointed little heads cannot grasp that it takes dollars out of the pockets of hard working U.S. citizens to pay for their fat asses sitting in first class traveling to Kuwait.

There is such a disconnect between them and us I have no idea how they will ever begin to govern for the benefit of us over them.