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Why Are Members of Congress Using Your Money to Fly First-Class?
Last year, Bloomberg Businessweek ran a feature titled, The Pampered World of Congressional Air Travel. The story detailed the cushy and expensive travel bookings Congressman and Senators make on a regular basis with frequent trips back and forth to their home states and districts. The cost to taxpayers is enormous, but could be much less if they'd simply swallow their pride and sit in coach with the rest of us.
"There is no more pampered class of air traveler than members of Congress.
At Washington’s Reagan National Airport, they have their own special parking spaces—right up close to the terminal—that they don’t even have to pay for. As Bloomberg Television’s Hans Nichols reports, this perk costs the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority $738,760 in foregone revenue.
To members of our fly-in-Tuesday-fly-home-Thursday Congress, these perks are a big deal. Most fly a lot, and many fly first class. They don’t just jet home to their districts. Sometimes, they’re jetting around the world at taxpayer expense ($23,646, to be specific), as Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas did in February. "
"As with all federal spending, Member's Representational Allowance funds are taxpayer dollars. As such, the use of these funds must be exercised with the utmost efficiency and transparency. A loophole currently exists that allows members of Congress to fly first-class at the expense of the taxpayer. Members of Congress are servants of the people and should not be considered a privileged class. Luxury airfare accommodations utilizing taxpayer monies would seem inappropriate in any fiscal climate but at a time of soaring deficits and with a federal debt in excess of $17 trillion such expenditures are especially wasteful," the request states. "If federal restrictions prohibit members of our military from traveling first-class, this same standard should also apply to Members of Congress."
"It's absolutely wasteful and completely unacceptable that Members of Congress - servants of the people - are currently allowed to fly first class using hard-earned taxpayer money.....snip~
Why Are Members of Congress Using Your Money to Fly First-Class? - Katie Pavlich
There you have it.....the loophole our servants always use. That they shouldn't be considered a privileged class. Yet that's exactly what they have become and use, manipulate, connive, and get around. Its high time it stops. They are no better than you or I. Nor any others. Time for our privileged servants to go back to just being servants. Perhaps if we actually started treating them like servants. They would get the message. What say ye?
Last year, Bloomberg Businessweek ran a feature titled, The Pampered World of Congressional Air Travel. The story detailed the cushy and expensive travel bookings Congressman and Senators make on a regular basis with frequent trips back and forth to their home states and districts. The cost to taxpayers is enormous, but could be much less if they'd simply swallow their pride and sit in coach with the rest of us.
"There is no more pampered class of air traveler than members of Congress.
At Washington’s Reagan National Airport, they have their own special parking spaces—right up close to the terminal—that they don’t even have to pay for. As Bloomberg Television’s Hans Nichols reports, this perk costs the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority $738,760 in foregone revenue.
To members of our fly-in-Tuesday-fly-home-Thursday Congress, these perks are a big deal. Most fly a lot, and many fly first class. They don’t just jet home to their districts. Sometimes, they’re jetting around the world at taxpayer expense ($23,646, to be specific), as Democratic Representative Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas did in February. "
"As with all federal spending, Member's Representational Allowance funds are taxpayer dollars. As such, the use of these funds must be exercised with the utmost efficiency and transparency. A loophole currently exists that allows members of Congress to fly first-class at the expense of the taxpayer. Members of Congress are servants of the people and should not be considered a privileged class. Luxury airfare accommodations utilizing taxpayer monies would seem inappropriate in any fiscal climate but at a time of soaring deficits and with a federal debt in excess of $17 trillion such expenditures are especially wasteful," the request states. "If federal restrictions prohibit members of our military from traveling first-class, this same standard should also apply to Members of Congress."
"It's absolutely wasteful and completely unacceptable that Members of Congress - servants of the people - are currently allowed to fly first class using hard-earned taxpayer money.....snip~
Why Are Members of Congress Using Your Money to Fly First-Class? - Katie Pavlich
There you have it.....the loophole our servants always use. That they shouldn't be considered a privileged class. Yet that's exactly what they have become and use, manipulate, connive, and get around. Its high time it stops. They are no better than you or I. Nor any others. Time for our privileged servants to go back to just being servants. Perhaps if we actually started treating them like servants. They would get the message. What say ye?
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