Feb 15, 2007 7:46 pm US/Central
Critics Say Obama Travels Too Much On Tax Money
Detractors Claim Obama Was Using Foreign Travel To Bolster Presidential Resume
by Mike Flannery
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
A new study claims Sen. Barack Obama travels too much at the expense of taxpayers. The findings show he spent more taxpayer money on trips than any other first-term senator.
As CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports, the world traveler is defending his globe-trotting and says he has no intention of slowing down.
Obama traveled last weekend using a privately paid for charter plane dubbed "Obama One" to carry his campaign for president to Iowa.
Now that he is running for president an earlier round of travel is under scrutiny with critics questioning why he used more taxpayer dollars than any other freshman senator to travel overseas.
Obama's travels in 2005 and 2006 cost nearly $28,000.
Eight other freshman senators took office with Obama. Reports from the Senate office public records show that about $19,000 was the most any of them spent for government travel.
"Why else would that kind of travel be so important for a freshman senator when you really ran about domestic issues and that's what you're going to be about, delivering for Illinois?" said Illinois GOP Chairman Andy McKenna.
Obama-backers cite the huge and friendly crowds he attracted in Kenya as evidence of the goodwill that trip generated for the U.S., not to mention the substantive work that Obama and his wife, Michelle, did on HIV/AIDS and other life-and-death issues in Africa.
Obama's travels in his first two years as a senator include trips to Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, South Africa, Kenya, Djibouti and Chad.
"Many of the mistakes [Bush] has made in Iraq demonstrate the importance of lawmakers having firsthand knowledge of the religious, ethnic and economic makeup of countries we interact with," said an Obama spokesperson.
All the more important since Obama sits on the Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations. His spokesperson said Obama is very proud that he worked with Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar to help secure nuclear material in Russia, and they passed a bill do that in the Senate.
Critics are not pointing to one individual trip they say was not worth taking, but instead say he was using the sum of the trips to bolster his presidential resume.
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