Hastert wastes $20,000 in taxpayer money on lavish trips during last 11 months in office.

The AP has found out that during former House speaker Dennis Hastert’s last 11 months in office, he “managed to visit seven nations and run up a tab of just over $20,000 in taxpayer-funded overseas trips.” Hastert — who held no leadership position in Congress during this time — traveled to the UK, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, China, Japan, and Colombia. In contrast, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) took taxpayer funded trips to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, Kuwait, and Jordan; he “received $1,195 in per diem, but spent $827.16 and returned the rest to the U.S. treasury.”