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POPSJohn Fund Reports on a New Congressional Travel Scandal 
"The policy is completely inconsistent," one House member told me. Total per diem allowances (per person, including staff) can top $3,000 for a single trip. Unused funds are supposed to be given back to the government, but congressional records show that rarely happens. It's all part of the "arrogance of D.C.," Sen. Tom Coburn (R., Okla.) told me Monday. "These are lucrative payments since many members have zero expenses overseas." After his last government-sponsored trip to Iraq, Mr. Coburn wrote the U.S. Treasury a check for his unused per diem. Not wanting to be dependent on government handlers, he paid for his own trip to the Middle East a couple of years ago. "I learned a lot more on my own than on the government trips I've been on," he says. The House's official handbook requires that lawmakers use regular U.S. airlines "whenever possible, unless such service is not reasonably available." But congressional records show members routinely take military planes to London,
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POPSCongress's Travel Tab Swells Spending on Taxpayer-Funded Trips Rises Tenfold; From Italy to the Galápagos Lawmakers frequently bring along spouses on congressional trips. If they take commercial flights, they have to buy tickets for spouses. If they fly on government planes -- as they usually do -- their spouses can fly free. Paris Air Show 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. Ri
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POPSOkie GOP Senator who does "Jesus Thing" believes it's OK to Lie Inhofe made the outright lie over and over in his commentary that President Obama had cut the military budget. Inhofe who believes his taxpayer funded trips to meet African leaders on a spiritual level is a "Jesus Thing" must believe Jesus approves of lying. The fact is that President Obama increases the military budget by about $25 billion. Additionally the military purchased every F-22 it planned to buy when the program begin and is now purchasng the less expensive F-35. Obviously Inhofe is a hypocritical turd who is concerned about the pork that won't be going to his home state. Additionally, Inhofe is a traitor for not supporting President Obama in this time of war. Neither did he support President Clinton when America's fighting men and women were in combat in Bosnia. What an f***'ing loser.
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POPSWhite House Orchestrated Taxpayer-Funded Trips to Help Republican Candidates A new report released today by the House Oversight Committee reveals that the White House orchestrated a huge, taxpayer-funded campaign to ensure Republican candidates were elected into office during the mid-term elections in November, 2006. In an apparent violation of the 1907 Hatch Act - which strictly prohibits the use of public offices to influence the outcome of elections - the efforts were coordinated by the White House Office of Political Affairs, which used political muscle in an attempt to retain Republican control of Congress. The will of the voter gets snuffed in Corporate America in more ways than imaginable.
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