The News & Observer examines today the $1.1 million private donors spent in the past five-and-a-half years to shuttle our Congressional delegation to different events around the world.
That dollar figure doesn’t particularly bother me, nor does the concept of private dollars funding these junkets. As long as our elected leaders report the trips and the source of the funding, voters can decide whether the trips are worthwhile.
What scared me in the article was the following passage regarding Rep. Mel Watt, whose travel destinations included Havana:
“I’m not apologizing for a single trip I ever took … ,” Watt said. “My folks elected me not to stick my head in the sand, but to go out and learn about things.”
Just last week, he said, he brought up Cuba’s health-care system at a congressional meeting on insurance matters. [Emphasis added.]
I hope the discussion was designed to point out horribly bad ideas.
