The Senate Republican Policy Committee Tuesday blasted President Clinton for his "excessive" foreign travel, with Policy Committee Chairman Larry Craig of Idaho dubbing the cost of the trips "almost abusive" in an era when fiscal responsibility and budgetary reductions are the watchwords in Washington.
Craig said Republicans were not taking issue with the president's need to travel abroad, but he questioned the $72.1 million price tag of 1998 trips to Africa, Chile and China.
Particularly vexing, according to Craig and Sens. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., is the fact that about 84 percent of the costs associated with those trips came from the Defense Department's U.S. Military Readiness Fund.
Sessions said the money spent on the three trips could fund a four-year campaign to get thousands of military personnel off food stamps, or could support tens of thousands of new recruits for all branches of the military.
The backdrop for the committee's complaint was a draft report conducted by the GAO that found the president's trips to Africa, Chile and China cost $42.8 million, $10.5 million and $18.8 million, respectively.
The cost of the Africa trip, which included 1,300 federal agency staff, was called "ludicrous" by Thomas, while Craig called it "an awful high price tag to pay for an apology."
When pressed to explain that statement further, a flustered Craig refused one reporter's suggestion it had something to do with slavery, saying, "I wouldn't make a statement about that and I won't respond to the Africa question."
Craig also denied the report represented a campaign by Republicans to "get" the president. By way of comparison, he noted that President Reagan traveled abroad just 84 days in eight years, while President Bush traveled overseas 86 days in four years.
However, Republicans had no dollar figures on the Reagan or Bush trips, saying it would have taken the GAO another year or more to collect that data.