Fat Cat Pat 
By Rob Roper

We were all properly outraged when the "fat cats" at AIG got caught using taxpayer bailout dollars to treat themselves to luxury getaways at a fancy spa. They ran their businesses into financial ruin, we bailed them out with our hard earned paychecks, and their frivolous use of our money was a slap in the face.

It was equally outrageous to read in the December 16, 2009, Wall Street Journal (read it here) that Vermont’s senator Patrick Leahy, along with four other senators, similarly exploited taxpayer funds to treat himself and his wife to a trip to England. According to the story, Leahy spent four days on our dime at the Danesfield House Hotel & Spa at $340-a-night. The state business Leahy was supposedly tending to in order to justify this junket included a riverboat trip down the Themes and a private tour of Windsor Castle.

Leahy is the third most senior member (and the number two person on the powerful, money-oriented Appropriations Committee) of a congress that has racked up a $1.4 trillion deficit and $13 trillion dollar debt, which appears to be totally out of control. Medicare and Social Security are both on the way to bankruptcy (read about it here). Their health care plans and energy policy are in a state of total disarray. National unemployment is at 10 percent.

Career Beltway politicians like Leahy have mismanaged our country to the brink of financial ruin every bit as much if not more than any bankers or auto executives they regulate. And, it is we the taxpayers who will no doubt be expected to sacrifice considerably for generations to bail out this congress’ failures. So, where does Leahy get off believing he is somehow more entitled to reach into our wallets to pay for his five-star boondoggle than the CEO of a failed insurance company?

Congress spent $13 million last year on international trips like the one Pat Leahy took, a figure that has increased 70 percent since 2005. While this is not a big number in comparison to the $13 TRILLION debt, neither was the $23,380 bill for spa treatments racked up by AIG employees (read about it here) in comparison to the total $700 billion plus bank bailout. Both are simply emblematic of the out-of-touch sense of entitlement and lack of respect for other people’s money that has gotten us into the financial mess we are in today.

Back in March, Pat Leahy aimed some pretty tough lip service at AIG’s disrespectful use of taxpayer dollars. He warned, "They best not be asking for more money…. They just won't get it." (Read about it here).

The citizens of Vermont should now take just as hard a line against Pat Leahy. These are painful economic times for the rest of us. The way he spent our money on his own pleasure was as big a slap in the face as AIG’s abuse, so he best not be asking for our vote next November. He just won’t get it.

Rob Roper lives in Stowe