OUR VIEW: Congress' travel pork swells

Given that we are in a severe recession, with pennies being pinched and national unemployment closing in on 10 percent, one might think our U.S. Congress lawmakers might be a bit more parsimonious when it came to sponging off taxpayers to take so-called "fact-finding" junkets.
One would be wrong to assume that. According to reports, lawmakers are traveling on the public's tab in record numbers. In 2008, $13 million of taxpayers' money was spent on free trips. These "congressional delegations" have increased about 70 percent in the past four years. In fact, spending on these trips has seen a sharp increase since the Democrats took control of Congress.
This abuse of the taxpayer treasury should be condemned. Although it may be tough to induce shame in a politician, soft, luxury junkets by our pols should be both well-publicized and well-condemned. It's time for voters to throw a few luxury-loving sponges out of office, and institute some national ethics reform.
Since a necessary ban on lobbyist-funded travel by pols was enacted a few years ago, lawmakers seem to think that mooching from us -- in this case, free travel -- is a deserved perk of high office.
This is an unfortunate syndrome that seems to affect too many politicians who are fortunate enough to be elected.
Some of the travel is legitimate, we concede. There are fact-finding trips to Iraq and Afghanistan, for example. It's essential for lawmakers to learn as much as possible about our soldiers' sacrifice in the terror war and the nature of our enemy.
But far too many of these junkets cannot be justified without abandoning common sense. Here are a few examples, according to the Wall Street Journal:
* Rep, Brian Baird, D-Wash., spent four days in the Galapagos Islands with four other lawmakers. Families were also there. This trip, which cost U.S. taxpayers $22,000, was supposedly to study global warming. We hope it was at least warm in the Galapagos for Baird, family and the other freeloaders.
* Last year, Rep. Bud Cramer, R-Ala., spent two weeks in Europe. Cramer, who claims he was there on government business, spent $5,700 of taxpayers' funds. He left office two months later.
* Last month, six U.S. senators and their spouses spent four days at the Paris Air Show. These senators, including Sen. Daniel K. Inouye, D-Hawaii, and Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., flew on an Air Force Boeing 737 (cost: $5,700 and hour) and stayed at a hotel where rooms start at $460 a night.
This kind of abuse of a political office and trust is indefensible. Where do elected officials get the idea that they have a right to pick our pockets to enjoy luxuries that most constituents are too frugal to even consider? Can't those who spend our money be better examples?