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Actually, I think businessmen, generally wealthy private citizens and also famous celebrities wanting to avoid the spotlight more commonly fly on private jets t
by stephenhuey 4y ago
Actually, I think businessmen, generally wealthy private citizens and also famous celebrities wanting to avoid the spotlight more commonly fly on private jets than politicians, at least in the USA.
It's tough flying back and forth to your home state almost every week and maybe not seeing your family very much, and often they tell the airlines in advance to reserve seats on more than one flight to ensure they make it home. This talks about how it's not as luxurious as it might sound:
https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/11/21/members-of-congress-mark-walker-fly-out-of-dc-airport-routine/ https://www.washingtonian.com/2016/11/21/members-of-congress...
There is a lot of info online about the travel allowances members of Congress in the USA have:
https://liveandletsfly.com/politicians-first-class/ https://liveandletsfly.com/politicians-first-class/
I didn't know it was a recent change that began allowing Senators to use their allowance to book private:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/politics/senate-rule-change-charter-flights/index.html https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/07/politics/senate-rule-change-c...
When there is a general expectation that these people spend a lot of time in both DC and their home where the people they represent are living, I'm not sure how you get around their need to be able to pay for all that traveling. It's part of our expectations in how they do their job. If you want to pick on someone, probably best to focus on the list at the beginning of my comment, but honestly, many of them have compelling reasons, e.g. no one is hassling you or me everywhere we go because half of the people in the country recognize us. :)