Who knew Haley Barbour supported public financing of elections? (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Fiscal conservatism:
Haley Barbour Flew State Plane To Deliver Cost Cutting Message To CPAC, Fox News
On Feb. 11, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, his wife and three aides flew in a luxury jet to Washington for a weekend of politicking, including an appearance on Fox News Sunday and a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference. “Our problem is not that we tax too little,” Barbour told the gathering. “It's that we spend too much.”
The potential presidential contender may have another problem: Mississippi taxpayers paid the tab for Barbour's first-class travel. State documents obtained by TIME show that Mississippi shelled out $7,020 to shuttle Barbour and his entourage to and from D.C. on its Cessna Citation, a cost that Barbour says is justified by state work he did in D.C. over the same weekend.
As it turns out, this is nothing new for Barbour—he charged taxpayers more than $300,000 for out-of-state travel in 2010, including hotel rooms costing $858 per night for his body guards. In total, he spent 175 days outside of Mississippi in 2010, much of it at political fundraisers interspersed with 'official' meetings to justify sticking taxpayers with the bill.