Ron Paul flying first class for congressional trips?

CANDIDATE: On both sides of the aisle, they like to spend money, but for different reasons. And they have been bipartisan too often. They get together and spend all this. They should be bipartisan and cut each of their own little programs that they like. But there's an addiction here. I don't think anything's going to happen until a lot of these people down here are willing to go into rehab.

O'DONNELL: For the whole of his political career, Congressman Ron Paul has been arguing for massive cuts in federal government spending. His consistency, but not his reasoning, on government spending has been flawless. He's voted against every unbalanced budget and every increase in the debt ceiling throughout his career in the House of Representatives .

But his anti-government spending consistency was broken today by this Associated Press headline: " Paul 's flights fly in face of cut-spending theme." The Associated Press report says, " Ron Paul has been spending large amounts on airfare as a congressman, flying first class on dozens of taxpayer-funded flights to his home state. The practice conflicts with the image that Paul portrays as the only presidential candidate serious about cutting federal spending." The AP goes on to present a detailed study of Ron Paul 's flights to and from Washington at government expense. " Paul flew first class on at least 31 round-trip flights and 12 one-way flights since May 2009 , when he was traveling between Washington and his district in Texas , according to a review by the Associated Press of his congressional office expenses." well, that's it. Case closed. Time to Rewrite the image of Ron Paul from an anti- government spending fanatic to an anti- government spending fanatic who is in favor of lavish government spending on his first class air travel . That's what I intended this Rewrite to be, until our crack research team here at THE LAST WORD contacted Congressman Paul 's congressional office for more detail. The congressman's chief of staff, Jeff Dice , e-mailed us a few more details. Congressman Paul "doesn't purchase first class tickets for congressional travel. He buys a refundable coach ticket at the federal government rate. This fact was lost in the headline of the AP story." It wasn't just lost in the headline of the AP story. It wasn't anywhere in the AP story. Anyone who read the AP story was led to believe that Congressman Paul was buying first class tickets using congressional funds. Paul 's chief of staff continued, "changes in the congressional voting schedule are frequent. And if he bought a non-refundable ticket and then didn't use it, he would incur the expense or change fee personally. That is, the U.S. House would not allow him to be reimbursed for a flight he ultimately didn't take." I can attest from personal experience that that is the standard practice in the Congress , in both the House and the Senate in both parties. The government rate for official travel, which is available for purchase at any time, up to and including the day of travel, is usually lower than other airfares, except the fares that require advanced purchase and are non-refundable. Congressman Paul 's chief of staff said, quote, "he absolutely needs the flexibility of a changeable ticket." And I can tell you, that is absolutely true. Every member of Congress does. Every member of every congressional staff does. New congressional staff members are discouraged from looking at the calendar for the recess dates and then buying advanced purchase non-refundable tickets for the day after the scheduled recess date, because Congress almost never recesses on the day it is scheduled to recess. Watching 24-year-olds in a senator's mail room have to throw away their non-refundable plane tickets home after the Senate stays in session as Christmas Eve approaches is always a sad thing to behold. And what about all those first class seats Ron Paul has been enjoying? His chief of staff explains, "he upgrades to first class when available, not always, using his frequent flyer miles with Continental Airlines , which he flies frequently from Houston to Washington , thus generating many such miles." So the first class seats don't cost the government one additional penny above a regular government coach rate. I so wanted the Associated Press take on Ron Paul 's first class travel to be true. It's nothing personal about Ron Paul . I just love to find inconsistencies in the behavior of anti- government spending conservatives, like Michele Bachmann 's family making hundreds of thousands of dollars in farm subsidies, the ultimate in unjustifiable government handouts. But this is not that. Ron Paul has done nothing inconsistent with his rhetoric in his congressional travel. It's the Associated Press story that needs to be Rewritten . In place of the headline " Paul 's Flights Fly in the Face of Cut Spending Theme ," it should say something like, " Paul 's Congressional Flights Home Just Like Everyone Else's." But I, for one, never would have read that story. And the AP probably wouldn't have published it.