Senators Wasting Taxpayer Money with Unnecessary and Expensive Air Travel

This story is the kind of thing that should cause outrage among American citizens. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) have each racked up more than $140,000 dollars in charter air travel fees so far this year, far more than most of their colleagues. In both cases, commercial flights would have been far less expensive.

In one case, Senator Cornyn chartered a flight for nearly 60 staffers to a Maryland resort for a weekend retreat, spending more than $38,000 to do so. Is there any place in Maryland that is more than two hour's drive from Washington D.C.? Couldn't they have taken a bus?

Three other senators- Kit Bond (R-MO), Bob Corker (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA)- also spent more than $100,000 each on chartered air travel so far this year.

It might be argued that a couple hundred thousand dollars represent a mere drop of water in the bucket of the massive federal budget and that this is therefore not an important story. But that's not the point. Each one of those dollars came from a hardworking citizen, and this kind of activity reflects the irresponsible attitude that most of the current members of Congress hold towards their stewardship of the taxpayer's money. The fact that this is going on during a time of economic hardship for many citizens makes the insult all the worse.

21st Century Jeffersonians should remorselessly monitor the uses their own Senators, Congressmen, and state legislators make of taxpayer money for their own expenses and hold them to account.