How Congress spent their Easter Vacation- On our Dime

As you can read here, congress was very willing to spend taxpayer money to fly around the world while on break, and while our troops wait for funding. Part of their campaign last November included accusing Republican of taking these same type of trips.

For these trips to qualify for military planes the trips are supposed to be related to members official duties and contain members of both parties, but Nancy Pelosi waived this rule for three delegations.

She said:

“There was a good faith effort made to include Republican members,” a Pelosi spokesman said. “For one reason or another, that did not work.”

Riiiiigghht 

From the article:

Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi took his wife, nine Democrats and two Republicans – Reps. Dan Lungren of California and Mike Rogers of Alabama – on a whirlwind tour of the Caribbean last week. After stops in Honduras and Mexico, they stopped in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the delegation stayed at the five-star Caneel Bay resort.

This is how the trip was justified:

Thompson’s office said he toured the Caribbean because he now chairs the Homeland Security Committee and wanted to see vacation hot spots to “examine border security and port security.”

National security? I guess I have been giving Nancy Pelosi too much grief in my previous posts, at least she went to the middle east, where there happens to be a war going on.

Also from the article:

Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., also led a trip to Belgium over the two-week Easter recess. In February, Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, took a delegation there.

“We’re at war with Iraq and Afghanistan, but apparently our members see Belgium as our most urgent international destination,” scoffed one Republican member of Congress.

That is how they spent their Easter vacation, it must be nice. We’ll be getting the bill.