Bush Administration Travel Budget

1 Pages 299 Words

The article that I chose for my current events paper came from the New York Times, on September 25, 2002. The title of the article is ¡°Cheney¡¯s Travel Budget Raises Eyebrows¡±. It was written by Katherine Q. Seelye.
Vice President Dick Cheney¡¯s staff is asking Congress for an additional $100, 000 for his travel budget this year. Administration officials say it is for ¡°additional unplanned official trips¡± related to the aftermath of the September 11th attacks. Democrats suggest the money is being used for political trips in this campaign season. Mr. Cheney is given $386,000 appropriated by Congress, for the fiscal year. He has already spent that sum, as well as an additional $50,000 Congress gives him for unanticipated travel. In 1994, the comparable year for President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore was allocated $164,000 and spent only $51,000 of that amount. When asked his opinion about the funds, David Sirota, spokesman for the Democrats on the House of Appropriations Committee, said, ¡°This kind of disregard for other people¡¯s money may have worked at Halliburton, but it doesn¡¯t work with the American taxpayer.¡±
According to the figures in the article, Vice President Cheney has spent $1194.52 per day for a full fiscal year. That is an outrageous amount of money for travel. I have an idea for a budget plan. If we cut all the politicians¡¯ travel money for the fiscal year in half, I think we would have quite a substantial amount for some worthwhile government spending (like maybe bailing out Amtrak). I do understand that politicians and government officials cannot travel by commercial flight, but there has to be a better system in place. I am appalled to think that I pay $0.30 out of every dollar I earn to pay for this kind of nonsense....