May 10, 2005
If you thought Tom Delay was the worst, you were wrong
There is much in the news recently about Tom Delay and his supposed ethics problems. Reality is this is 99% smoke and 1% substance. This is about crippling an effective member of the opposition by national media trial.
In a four-and-a-half month investigation, Marketplace, American RadioWorks, and a team of graduate students from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism cataloged every privately sponsored trip taken by members of the House and Senate since the year 2000. Here's some interesting facts about the Congressional junkets - all of which were paid for by private groups.For more info go here, here and here.Democratic Party
Percentage of seats in Congress controlled (currently): 46%
Number of trips for party members: 2729
Total spent on party members: $7,805,362.87
Percentage of total spent on party: 54.3%
Percentage of the top 100 travelers (by cost): 57%Republican Party
Percentage of seats in Congress controlled (currently): 54%
Number of trips for party members: 2095
Total spent on party members: $6,512,990.35
Percentage of total spent on party: 45.3%
Percentage of the top 100 travelers (by cost): 43%Bonus Stat: Tom DeLay comes in a lowly 29th on the list of top 100 Congressional trip takers, though he does score two trips in the top 5 most expensive individual trips.
Posted by Sid at May 10, 2005 06:37 AM | Politics
