Congresscritters Travel the World, Taxpayers Foot the Bill
It's good to be an elected official
Want to travel the world at no cost to you? Then get elected to Congress.
Take Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin. The Democrat took trips to Croatia, Tunisia, Alberta, Jordan, Mexico, Brazil, New Zealand, Cuba, Belgium, and the Bahamas within the past 12 years. His wife and daughter occasionally accompanied him on the excursions. In all, Harkin took 16 trips at a cost of $93,442.
And then there's Rep. Steve King, a Republican in Iowa's 5th District. He and his wife took a nine-day trip to Germany and Russia in 2009 and returned two years later to Germany for another six-day stay. Both trips exceeded $20,000.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?