Posted on 07/04/2009 5:02:14 AM PDT by reaganaut1
On Christmas Day, Sen. Arlen Specter flew to Europe and the Middle East for 11 days of meetings with government officials.
The travel-disclosure form the Pennsylvania Democrat filed for the trip reported the seven-country tour with his wife, an aide and two military officials on a private military jet cost $571 a person, or a total of about $2,800.
The real cost was far higher, in excess of $70,000, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
Mr. Specter's travel report is one of scores of examples of the gap between the expenditures congressional delegations are required to report and what the trips actually cost taxpayers.
A Journal analysis of 60,000 travel records shows that lawmakers disclosed spending about $13 million in 2008 on overseas congressional delegations, or codels. That is nearly a tenfold increase since 1995, the analysis shows.
But the total tab disclosed by Congress is only a fraction of the true cost to taxpayers, according to the Journal's analysis.
Under a 1970s law that authorizes taxpayer-funded codels, lawmakers only must disclose how much they spent on lodging, meals, ground transportation and other incidental expenses. Members of Congress also must make public their spending on commercial airfare, though most lawmakers fly on military planes, which don't have to be disclosed.
Mr. Specter's disclosure form reports that he spent $1,103 for food and accommodations. The aide that accompanied him spent $1,750, according to the disclosure form. The cost of food, hotels and transportation for the two military officials was not disclosed.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
ABUSE OF POWER, hope all of you are remembering these antics. The clear message will be sent in 2010 when we send these parasites back to the rocks they crawled out from under.
It’s cheaper to keep Arlen out of country for 365 days than it is for a single vote he casts.
This is outrageous. I couldn’t travel for 11 days here in the Midwest for that price.
Well, unless they are Republican that is.
At every stop Foreign Service officers stop whatever they are doing and are put at the disposel of the CODEL (Congressional Delegation). Wivee are used to escort members on shopping sprees. The delegation itself holds one or two innocuous meetings of no actual importance. In short, it is a vacation on the tax-payers dime.
Well, he is a remarkable dollar stretcher, that Arlen.
Mr. niteowl77
Well, he is a remarkable dollar stretcher, that Arlen.
Mr. niteowl77
Always liked the WSJ.
Always liked the WSJ.
Politicians’ lie.
What are we all going to DO about this exploitation of the taxpayers? VOTE THE BUMS OUT—anyone in Congress more than one term!
I live near Reno and cannot fly to Wisconsin for a couple of days and back for $571.
The impudence of the politicians we have now is staggering.
Is there any kind of law we can hit them with for filing false reports?
Who the hell do they think they are? We deserve better.
This is because government is much more efficient at stending money than private citizens, just ask Obama. Yeah, right.
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