Wanna Get Away? Lawmakers Do …

Taxpayer-funded travel by U.S. lawmakers is up dramatically, rising by 50% since Democrats took control of Congress and tripling since 2001, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.

Since 1995, Congressional travel is up ten-fold.

Some of the travel, obviously, is legitimate. But here’s an example of a trip taken by a Senator who’s already in hot water for other stuff that sounds a lot to us like a big party.

From WSJ:

In mid-June, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D., Hawaii) led a group of a half-dozen senators and their spouses on a four-day trip to France for the biennial Paris Air Show. An itinerary for the event shows that lawmakers flew on the Air Force’s version of the Boeing 737, which costs $5,700 an hour to operate. They stayed at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand Hotel, which advertises rooms from $460 a night.

The lawmakers were invited to a dinner party at the U.S. Embassy and had cocktails at a private party at the Eiffel Tower. Mr. Inouye attended a dinner sponsored by the Aerospace Industries Association, a U.S. trade group. Another senator on the trip, Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, took a cruise on the River Seine with defense-industry executives and elected officials from Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

Mr. Inouye and Mr. Shelby declined to comment.

The Journal report also focuses on an eight-day Italian jaunt taken by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

No word on whether she flew the G-5, as is her habit.

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