Page 24 - Junkets News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Employees. john: and the town is smaller than the charge, but still -- >> hundred thousand people. there have been five more cities to come along and copy this sandy springs model. john: and while detroit is what debt per person? >> 28,000 per person. john: sandy springs. >> nine, operating totally in the black. they're charter requires them to have a cash operating reserve which is how they pay for capital projects. john: yorktown got in the worst trouble because your last mayor was taken money for himself, kilpatrick. he used city funds to fund junkets, 54 trips, when zero rentals, but the c...

Money. >> waste, fraud and abuse is nothing new. if the american public -- if politicians would talk about this, the mish public would be more in tune. they have no idea. but if we put them all out there, everybody would go crazy and you forgot the government junkets, $340 million. waste, fraud and abuse is part of the deficit reduction, if we don't get to that, guess what? that will continue. we may be kicking america to its grave. >> jamie: you guys, you have made the effort, red on this side, blue on this side. i will get the memo and wear white. meantime, thanks so much. i hope our elected...

Is that the idea? >> reporter: just equal percentages of everything. martha: unbelievable. >> reporter: some congressman not as essential on as these other parts but that is not the way it works. martha: are lawmakers defending all of this? >> reporter: a democratic congressman from new jersey, rush holt, who is also a physicist, he testified yesterday scientists like him need conferences. >> first-hand how important scientific conferences and meetings are. the informal conferences and formal presentations that go into a conference lead to real collaboration. these are not fancy junkets. >> re...

That is caused all the problems. >> absolutely, why not? there are now some aig shareholders who are bringing a $25 billion suit against the government because they claim the terms of the bailout were too onerous. >> yeah. >> i guess they'd have preferred bankruptcy instead of the bailout? >> well, the fact is that -- you know, it's funny. they asked for the loan. they were very grateful for the loan. we helped them get through this very difficult crisis, even when they kind of, you know, just slapped us in the face by going on these junkets and having a good time while my constituents were su...

Gamble where the country's credit worthiness was at stake and they got drunk at a washington nationals game and got drunk and peeing on a fire hydrant, you'd get the same problem. it's kind of demeaning especially in a time when these people have been engaged in some serious and economically dangerous business. >> i like your imagery. anyway, one thing i do like about junkets that was missing here, mark, is that you called them junkets, they do cost money, but what normally happens on these trips, if they are bipartisan and if they are fact-finding, you find yourself -- i've been on a couple o...