Are you ready for a little insult?

Your lawmakers are junketing again.  They are flying off to romantic places, often with wives in tow, on your tax dollar.  And often on government planes.  Which you bought, of course.

It is not the money.

Now, you know that when somebody says “It’s not the money,” it’s the money.  In this case it truly is not.  The money only comes to $13 million a year.  Congressguys go through $13 million every minute.  It is the insult, I suppose.  Tis the slap in the face.

Firstly, the budget for travel for Congress is much larger than $13 million. Congress uses  formulas which come nowhere near disclosing all the costs of such travel.  Convenient formulas if ever there were.

Secondly, their travel budget has increased tenfold since 1995.  You don’t have to study lawmaking very much to deduce that the need for congressguys to travel has not increased that much in 14 years.

Recently the Wall Street Journal ran a long story about a junket members of Congress undertook.  They said the trip was necessary for them to study the effects of global warming.

They said they needed their wives with them for inspiration and perspective they would provide.

They defended diving and snorkeling off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia on the trip.  They said that cable car trip through the Australian rain forest was essential.