House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-C.A., is talking a good game about the struggles of unpaid federal workers. But when it comes down to it, she sure seems to enjoy the luxuries of life – especially when they come at the expense of the taxpayers!
Judicial Watch has uncovered a trove of documents that expose her high-flying travel habits.
And let’s just say you could probably travel around the world in first class – twice – and still not come close to the price of a single one of her ludicrously expensive trips.
The watchdog group obtained the records on a 2015 trip she took that sounds like something out of the “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.” (Remember that?)
She and her entourage – including several lawmakers and their spouses – enjoyed Milan, Rome and Naples in Italy. The took private tours of the Vatican Museum, Sistine Chapel, Duomo and even got a peek at Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece, “Last Supper.”
And then, to cap it all off, they also went to Kiev in Ukraine.
The bill? You might want to be sitting down for this… since YOU paid for it: Documents obtained by the organization under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that it cost $184,587.81 for a week of travel.
Looks like President Donald Trump had the right idea earlier this month when he cancelled Pelosi’s latest planned trip to Belgium, Egypt and Afghanistan amid the shutdown.
“In light of the 800,000 great American workers not receiving pay, I am sure you would agree that postponing this public relations event is totally appropriate,” Trump wrote.
She should’ve thanked him. As he pointed out, it was a public relations event… and one that would’ve turned into a PR nightmare if the public had seen her traveling like a VIP on the taxpayers’ dime while federal workers line up at food pantries.
He was doing her a favor!
Instead, she turned to faux outrage. Pelosi’s spokesman fired off a high-and-mighty statement about the importance of oversight over U.S. military operations.
“The United States Congress is a co-equal branch of government in our system of checks and balances,” said Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff. “The Congress has a constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight in the war zone where our men and women in uniform are risking their lives every day.”
The sure SOUNDS important.
And it WOULD be important, if Pelosi actually had any interest in true oversight of the armed forces.
Except Pelosi’s 2015 trip included “oversight” at the tony James Beard American Restaurant restaurant in Milan, where “more than 30 award-winning chefs from across America will take turns, on a rotational basis, to prepare dinners,” the Milan City Guide reported at the time.
The average price for those meals? Nearly $200 a pop!
Some leftist elites might mock Trump for his love of McDonald’s… but at least we know he’s not spending $200 for a meal there.
The 2015 trip is hardly the only example of Pelosi’s extravagant travel habits at the taxpayer’s expense.
Judicial Watch said last time Pelosi served as speaker, she used “U.S. Air Force aircraft as her own personal party planes.”
Over a two-year period, she racked up more than $2 million in travel expenses… including a whopping $101,429.14 on in-flight purchases such as food and alcohol.
That’s a LOT of those tiny bottles of liquor… and that’s not even a joke.
During one trip, Judicial Watch documents reveal her delegation consumed “Johnny Walker Red scotch, Grey Goose vodka, E&J brandy, Baileys Irish Cream, Maker’s Mark whisky, Courvoisier cognac, Bacardi Light rum, Jim Beam whiskey, Beefeater gin, Dewar’s scotch, Bombay Sapphire gin, Jack Daniels whiskey, Corona beer and several bottles of wine.”
You have to wonder if anyone on that trip even remembers it!
“Congress, under both Republicans and Democrats, has a long record of abusing taxpayers and the military with wasteful ‘official’ travel,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in 2015.
With Trump unafraid to hit the “CANCEL” button, it looks like that long record might finally be coming to an end.
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert, and is the author of “America’s Final Warning.”