Emerson's travel

Like many veterans, I have taken a few taxpayer-funded trips. Two of mine were to Iraq. When I was deployed, I was always proud of my home and the people I left behind. In the Army, I was an ambassador of my home.

U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson has taken a few more taxpayer funded trips of her own -- to Europe. Quite a few, in fact. Her last one made the front page of Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, and most of you won't be proud: charter flights, $2,500-a-day ground transportation, $300 accommodations and presidential suites at luxury hotels.

It would be one thing if she had accomplished a mission -- to bring jobs back to the district -- or convinced our NATO allies to commit more troops to Afghanistan. But The Wall Street Journal reported the representatives and their families spent their time at spas, sightseeing trips and expensive dinners and then didn't even stay for the last two days of the five-day conference. For the 10th poorest district in the country, a district that has seen more of its economic opportunity continuously slip away over the years Emerson has been in office, such a blatant waste of hard-earned taxpayer dollars is completely out of touch with how people here live and how they expect to be represented.

It is time we found out the truth about all of Emerson's trips and what she does in Washington.

Being in Washington too long can have a corrupting effect on a person's value system. She was born and raised there and spends most of her time at her home in Washington. Whether our dollars are spent on expensive European hotel rooms, bailouts of big banks or on earmarks for her district that she wants credit for but then voted against, Washington's addiction to wasting our money has got to stop. The only way that can happen is through a wholesale change in leadership. This isn't a party issue. This is a values issue. And there is more than enough blame on both sides of the aisle.

Over the next months, we're going to find out a lot more about Emerson, a former lobbyist, and her expensive lifestyle. If I am elected as your representative, you have my word that I will not be wasting taxpayer funds on trips whose purpose appears to be more geared toward sightseeing, shopping and eating than getting real results for my country or my home district. It's not how we act here at home. It's time we expect more from the people who represent us.

Tommy Sowers of Rolla plans to file as a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Missouri's 8th District.