Dems Junkets on the taxpayer dime?

[TheMercenary]

Pelosi on a fun trip to Italy? She travels to Italy on a government owned Jet @ 10K per hour. Museums, shows, fine dinning? Guess who is paying for this? You are. Aren't we suppose to be saving money for the tax payer and looking for ways to reduce spending.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaDtkG6afBc

And when did Pelosi start to work for the State Department? Isn't this really the job of Clinton?

CNN just did about a 8 min segment on this and another junket by 6 dems which was nothing more than a sight-seeing trip to see the MLK musemum. Good job guys.

[TheMercenary]

Well this is rich!

2/20/09 8:53 AM EST

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) put pledge to paper on Thursday by sending her committee chairmen a letter asking them to "conduct rigorous oversight of all aspects of federal spending" in order to reduce an escalating budget deficit.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19052.html

[TheMercenary]

And the news begins to trickle out. The story on CNN said that they would not know the complete cost of these trips until 60 days after they returned.

Congress Under Fire for Travels During Recess
February 20, 2009 02:01 PM
by Rachel Balik
Congress is attacking big corporations for wasteful spending; meanwhile, congressional delegations to Europe are drawing scrutiny.

Trips to Europe Necessary, Congress Says, But Not All Constituents Agree
In the weeks surrounding the controversial stimulus package and corporate bailouts, members of Congress have been relentless in their criticism of corporate spending. Meanwhile, members of Congress have been making numerous international trips during recess, much of which is financed by taxpayers. They say the travel is essential so that they can learn about other countries and make better decisions as representatives, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

Rep. John Tanner (D-Tenn.), who is leading one such trip to Europe, responded to criticism by providing an itinerary of the trip, which he said was almost all work, ABC News reports. The trip includes stops in Brussels (headquarters of NATO; Tanner is currently NATO president), Vienna and Paris.

A recent congressional delegation to Italy, headed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is the particular focus of negative attention during a time when many feel Congress members should remain at home, aiding their constituents. Although she has met with the pope on her trip, she has also been visiting museums and has even been presented with the gift of her Italian grandparents' birth records, MarketWatch reported.

Some conservatives have alleged that Pelosi's flight to Italy cost $200,000. Rumors have been circulating for quite some time that Pelosi uses a 200-seat Air Force jet for her flights, and that she is the first Speaker to regularly fly on military planes. However, nonpartisan Web site FactCheck.org explains that, in fact, Speaker Dennis Hastert was the first to make regular use of Air Force planes, and that Pelosi uses the same type that he did, a 12-seater.

For years, top employees were rewarded with upscale vacations in the guise of business trips and retreats. But even companies not receiving federal bailout money are trimming their budgets these days, and extravagant corporate retreats have been the first perks to get cut. Cancellations and cutbacks on such trips have been so dramatic that hotels and resorts are panicking about the backlash that new temperate spending will wreak on the travel industry.

Some companies have continued with events that have a necessary purpose, such as business trips, but many are cutting back. The New York Times reports that outerwear manufacturer The North Face recently had its employees camp out in tents on a recent retreat to save money on hotel rooms.

The cuts are about more than saving money—they’re also about saving face. Few companies are eager to join the list of those that have been singled out for extravagant or luxury spending.

Struggling financial corporation Citigroup has received significant criticism recently for expenditures that many people see as unnecessary. At the end of January, Reps. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Ted Poe, R-Texas, joined a growing chorus of public critics of Citigroup’s $400 million deal to name the New York Mets’ new home stadium Citi Field, when they sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner asking him to dissolve the deal.

“It’s just totally unacceptable that Citigroup should be able to spend $400 million in naming rights when they’re the recipients of a massive federal bailout,” Kucinich said, according to Newsday.

The close scrutiny of corporate spending first arose in the wake of the AIG bailout in the fall of 2008. Soon after the insurance giant received billions in government loans, executives went ahead with a scheduled executive retreat in California. The company ran up a tab of $440,000, and U.S. News & World Report published the invoice from the controversial AIG retreat, provided by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The retreat included over $20,000 in spa treatments for the executives.

But The Wall Street Journal reported that the Republican members of Congress continued on with a retreat to a Virginia resort, right in the midst of criticizing the stimulus package for its "pork." The party did not fund the trip with taxpayer dollars, but they did use campaign funds to pay for luxury room and board. The Journal also reported that Democrats took a two-day trip that did rely on taxpayer dollars to hold an "issues conference." A spokeswoman for the Caucus emphasized that the trip involved intense and focused work. Meanwhile, both the House and Congress increased their own salaries this year by $4,700, justified as a cost of living raise.

What duplicity.

http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/...ng-Recess.html

[TGRR]

I am shocked! SHOCKED, I TELL YOU!

[classicman]

Change you can believe in! Just the characters have changed - seems like more of the same - bummer.

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by classicman

Change you can believe in! Just the characters have changed - seems like more of the same - bummer.

Optimist.

[Beestie]

I'd be outraged if I weren't so numb to it all. Maybe punchdrunk is a better word.

[classicman]

They got you/us right where they want you/us.

I think this is much ado about nothing.

Congress has a significant role in overseeing foreign policy.

Why would anyone want to "change" that?

I want members of Congress, particularly the leaders and those who serve on Foreign Relations Committee, to meet with foreign officials, and attend NATO meetings, particularly at a time and with the intent of persuading NATO to help take the load off of the US in Afghanistan.

Oh well, I guess some find Merc's link to an editorial (opinion) by Rachel Balek to be persuasive:

Rachel was a copywriter at a financial services marketing firm. She has also worked in arts administration at New York's Roundabout Theatre Company and as a production assistant on off-Broadway shows. Rachel's eclectic post-college years also include a stint as a yoga studio assistant and a summer spent assistant-teaching philosophy at Phillips Exeter Academy. She has a B.A. in English and Philosophy from the University of Pennsylvania with a minor in Theatre Arts.

Right...lets have the manner in which Congress oversees foreign policy be guided by the opinion of an off-Broadway assistant producer/yoga studio assistant.

I can only imagine the criticism if the Democrats stayed at home and did not go meet foreign leaders or attend meetings of our alliances....

"Why dont they get off their collective asses and go meet with our allies, instead of being armchair quarterbacks from their cushy offices in DC."

You just cant win if someone is intent on finding fault.

[TGRR]

Originally Posted by Redux

I think this is much ado about nothing.

Naw. But what IS happening is that the GOP is bitching about things that they, themselves, do all the fucking time (my favorite example is John Sununu, though there are plenty of more recent examples).

[TheMercenary]

It is not about who did what, it is about the double standards and duplicity. Need I post some grand Nancy Pelosi quotes and Obama quotes about change and how the are going to do things differently in Washington?

Where is the double standard when Congressional travel (and gifts) are covered by the more stringent and transparent Ethics/Lobbying/Gift reform that Pelosi and Reid enacted when the Democrats first assumed control?

BTW, it was the first such reform in 20 years and while it doesnt go nearly far enough for me, it provides far more limitations and reporting requirements than anything the Republicans ever enacted.

[TheMercenary]

I guess you have not heard much about the latest Pelosi trip.

I guess you havent read the Ethics/Lobbying/Gift Reform rules that the Democrats put in place.

But of course, I dont expect you to acknowledge that "change"...it goes everything you stand for.

[richlevy]

Some conservatives have alleged that Pelosi's flight to Italy cost $200,000. Rumors have been circulating for quite some time that Pelosi uses a 200-seat Air Force jet for her flights, and that she is the first Speaker to regularly fly on military planes. However, nonpartisan Web site FactCheck.org explains that, in fact, Speaker Dennis Hastert was the first to make regular use of Air Force planes, and that Pelosi uses the same type that he did, a 12-seater.

I remember talking to someone I knew who worked for a major computer company. He was complaining about being sent to Paris again. It wasn't until I went on my first business trip late in my career to San Francisco and LA (multiple times) that I understood how draining it can be. Working long days and returning to your hotel too exhausted to do anything but sleep makes the location irrelevant.

I have less sympathy for people who have retreats at fancy resorts where the invitees can duck out of any or all programs.

If Pelosi or any member of Congress worked a full schedule and didn't spend most of their time touring the wine country, that's fine. I wonder if their itineraries are public by law or by choice.

At the very least, she didn't pull a Palin and have the government fly her children along at taxpayer expense as special ambassadors or something.