Cut the CODELs

Our useless Congresscreatures are busy slashing funding for vital social services for the poors and the olds because they claim government spending is out of control, but they don't have any problem spending millions on pleasure trips abroad under the thin aegis of CODELs. This one is especially egregious because she had to jet over to join only part of the trip.

The House Judiciary Committee reported Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, traveled around the world on an official trip in February that cost $23,646. The Feb. 16-22 trip on commercial flights was to Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Mary Landrieu organized this little jaunt to the far east that "included several members of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption" and for what, you ask?

The delegation was to meet with local community leaders, adoption officials, and other government officials, such as the Vietnamese Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.

Seriously. If they're so hot to find unneccesary spending they should start here. What's so damn important about these trips? Who the hell do they think they are, the freaking State Department? According to them, we can't afford to feed kids in America and they're jetting off for a week or so to discuss adoption with foreign bureaucrats? This is 2013. We have this thing called teleconferencing. Almost like being there in person.

These guys take these CODEL trips under the radar all the time. You don't hear about them unless they do something unusual like skinny-dipping in Sea of Gallilee.

In 2008, members of the House and Senate spent $13 million on codels abroad. They don't really need to go to any of these places, not even war zones. They should cancel all of them immediately until their deficit fever breaks.