Ron Paul’s presidential campaign may not be taking off, but the Congressman himself has been doing so in luxury.
An Associated Press investigation of Paul’s travel expenditures reveal that the budget hawk’s trips between Houston and Washington, D.C. were booked at the government rate, or nearly twice the price of an economy ticket.
Paul’s office claims that they paid a higher rate to have more flexible tickets that could respond to the Congressman’s shifting schedule, and that many of the tickets were booked at the last minute. The AP disputes these rebuttals, noting that the first-class cost was more in line with first-class perks Paul received than any scheduling contingencies.
The AP quickly condemns this lavishness as in stark opposition to Paul’s stalwart anti-spending positions. Paul is one of the most outspoken legislators against government spending, and his presidential platform boasts massive cuts to the federal budget. Paul has lambasted his Republican primary opponents for their spending habits, portraying former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum especially as big-government conservatives.
There’s an element of low-hanging fruit to the AP’s criticism. Anybody as ideologically single-minded as Paul will eventually prove fallible, and Paul’s extra $25,000 in plane tickets is chump change compared to the alleged trillions of dollars in waste he claims the federal government represents. Complaints over travel expenditures also seem a bit unfair to the legislators who are required to shuttle constantly between their district and the capitol, no matter how frugal or populist their message.
Still, Paul has not been shy about criticizing others’ hypocrisy, and while he’s right that his opponents are looser with the federal purse than he is, Paul is also used his opponents’ responsible votes against them. Paul bit into Santorum at a debate a few weeks ago, tenaciously criticizing the former Pennsylvania legislator for his votes to increase the debt ceiling, an excess to Paul but to anybody else a crucial move to keep the government functioning.
If Paul is so insistent on holding others to his stringent libertarian standard, he hasn’t the room to complain when he himself gets the Ron Paul treatment.
---
Want to connect with other PoliticOlogists? Continue the conversation on My Ology
Follow Evan McMurry @evanmcmurry
Join today! Ology is where thousands of people share their interests and passions with each other.
This Makes Me Happy... Post anything that makes you happy. Go!
Taylor Swift For those of us who can't get enough Swifty.
Ology Hip-Hop "I embrace y'all with napalm..."
MLB All things baseball during the summer dog days
(1)
Comments
Don't worry, we'll never be evil with your information
-or-