"Over a 5½-year period ending in 2005, members of Congress and their aides took at least 23,000 trips — valued at almost $50 million — financed by private sponsors, many of them corporations, trade associations and nonprofit groups with business on Capitol Hill"
This is the opening sentence of a new report by Jim Morris - Privately Sponsored Trips Hot Tickets on Capitol Hill - for THE CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY.
I doubt if the report tells us much that we don't already know, or suspect. Still, it is a sad commentary on the state of our democracy, and should be required reading for every American.
Of course, it won't be read by all, or even by ten percent of us. For one thing, It is not about Shiloh (no, not that Shiloh, I'm talkin' about Brad & Angelina's daughter, for pity's sake!). Nor is it the latest about Tom and Katie and their new young'un - Suri - important though that may be. (By the way, have you taken the new pop quiz on Tom & Katie? Shame on you! You can put that to rights by going straight here)
It's not even about gay marriage, though it does touch on the intimate relations between members of congress and a whole slew of corporations, trade associations, etc. - suitors for special favors that only congress can grant:
"The forms show that about 2,300 trips cost $5,000 or more. At least 500 cost $10,000 or more, 16 cost $25,000 or more, and the cost of one exceeded $30,000. There were $500-a-night hotel rooms, $25,000 corporate jet rides and other extravagant perks."
We're not told how many of these trips were to New Orleans or Port Arthur. I feel sure that destinations like Malawi, Darfur, or Appalachia even, didn't figure largely in these itinaries. We do know that there were
"…at least 200 trips to Paris, 150 to Hawaii and 140 to Italy."
No matter how hard it may be for some of us to believe it, Tom DeLay did not make all of these trips. The spoils of being in the U.S Senate, or the House of Representatives, are fairly evenly divided between the parties. They were just as large a feature of the Clinton administration as they are of the Bush administration. The question is rather - what are we (whoever we are) going to do about it?
Reading the full report might be a start.
Can you say *entitlement?* Most of us think we NEED so much more than we do. I think too many of our congressfolk think they DESERVE more than they do. I know I'm guilty but I'm trying to be conscious. I scored "less than average" on an energy use quiz--no H2 in the driveway. We should be ashamed of ourselves.
Posted by: SallyT | June 09, 2006 at 06:53 PM