Well in her defense, some are a little more equal than others.
Posted on 09/21/2010 7:33:10 AM PDT by La Lydia
There’s something about usually-safe incumbents that makes cutting corners and ethical shortcuts that much more tempting; I suppose it’s more alluring when you know the voters are ever going to hold you accountable. Junkets are one of those temptations. Is there a legitimate use for members of Congress visiting foreign countries and meeting foreign leaders? Of course. But as usual, with little oversight or consequence for abusing the privilege, the trips become more frequent, the destinations less relevant to American geopolitical concerns, the connection to U.S foreign policy ever more tenuous.
Ask any U.S. embassy employee and they’ll probably have some horror story of an oblivious lawmaker more interested in souvenirs and sightseeing than business with the host government...
Since 2000, Sen. Barbara Boxer, California Democrat, has taken 18 trips, sponsored by outside organizations, at a value of $97,975.
Naturally, if you want to learn about the Islamic world, you go to… Paris, France. With your spouse. For a week. At a cost of $12,272, as Boxer did in 2008.
If you want to become more familiar with the impact on U.S. policy on Latin America, clearly, you go to…. the Punta Mita beach resort in Mexico. With your spouse. Three times, in 2006, 2005 and 2002, at a cost of roughly $6,000 per trip.
If you want to learn more about U.S.-Russia-European relations, you go to… Dublin, Ireland for five days, at a cost of more than $6,000, as she did in 2005. (I salute her taste.) Or perhaps you go to London, at a cost of $8,260, as she did in 2002.
The Aspen Institute was most often underwriting the cost of Boxer’s trips...I won’t begrudge a lawmaker for attending an AIPAC conference; but I’ll bet an initiation to one in Hawaii must be more tempting than the usual annual meeting in Washington. Boxer found the time for that one in 2000.
And lest one think, ‘oh, every senator does this,’… some don’t. In 2005, the California press started to notice the wide disparity between the travel expenses of Boxer and the state’s other senator, Democrat Dianne Feinstein: “Ms. Boxer’s 14 privately funded trips averaged out to nearly $5,300 apiece. In sharp contrast, Ms. Feinstein averaged about $292 per trip.”...
Credit where credit is due. Feinstein may disagree with me on many things, but at least when it comes to her personal expenses that are charged to the taxpayers, she spends our money as carefully as I would. We're tossing the right far-left liberal elitist out of the Senate, or at least trying to.
Well in her defense, some are a little more equal than others.
Sound like a 30 second campaign commercial to me.
$6,000 to go to Dublin for one Week????????? I toured the whole country this summer for two weeks for less than $4,000, including airfare!!!!!!!!!
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