Roskam family values: "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme"

In previous posts I alluded to the possibility that my Congressman Peter Roskam's $25,653 first class trip with his wife to Taiwan in 2011, ostensibly paid for by the Chinese Culture University, may in fact have been paid for by the government of Taiwan, in violation of US law. The Chicago Tribune last week provided expansive two page coverage of the current US House Ethics Committee investigation trying to determine exactly that. The article was prompted by the House Ethics Committee decision the previous day not to dismiss the case on that day's deadline, but instead, extend its review stating it needed to "gather additional information " about the trip.

Roskam sought and got pre-approval of the October, 2011, trip from the House claiming it was sponsored (paid for) by the Chinese Culture University. However, last May 31, the Office of Congressional Ethics voted unanimously that Roskam "knew, or should have known that the Taiwanese government organized and conducted his trip". Furthermore, they concluded Roskam had no interaction with the Chinese Culture University prior to his trip, and spent just 3 hours of the 9 day trip (including travel) at the University. According to the Ethics Committee, filling the void of the Chinese Culture University in Roskam's trip was the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in the US. TECRO is an arm of the Taiwanese government and the de facto US embassy in Washington. While TECRO could sponsor a Roskam trip if authorized under the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act (MECEA), no travel money can accrue to a lawmaker's family member. In the summer of 2011, TECRO did propose a Roskam trip. The dilemma Roskam faced was that he wanted his wife, Elizabeth, to tag along, gratis, so they could both visit their daughter who was teaching in Taiwan.

What to do? The trip mysteriously went off sponsored by the Chinese Culture University instead of TECRO and Pete and Liz's excellent $25,653 adventure began with first class airfare to Taiwan. The Roskams then traveled lavishly throughout the country for six days, including those 3 measly hours at the Chinese Culture University, before Pete and Liz boarded their first class flight back to the good 'ol USA.

Search "Roskam 2011 Taiwan trip" at Roskam's House website and a big goose egg pops up. The Daily Herald, in their July 28th editorial "Roskam, ethics and an oddly funded trip to Taiwan", has these questions of the Congressman which he has yet to answer: "Please explain to us and to your suburban constituents why, legal or not, you should accept a free junket apparently engineered by a foreign government that is interested in influencing your exercise of power? In fact, why should you accept a free junket sponsored by anyone seeking to influence you? Please explain to us why, legal or not, you should accept a free trip for your wife, paid for by a private grant that apparently had been engineered by that same foreign government?
The answer, it seems obvious to us, is that you should not. Whether those favors were legal or not, vetted or not, cynically routine in Congress or not. To those of us back home, Congressman, the morality of your choices is more important than the legality. We respectfully await your explanation".

Quite frankly, the Roskam number I'm most concerned about is a lot less than the $25,653 he scored to visit Taiwan with his family. It's exactly 25,653 less to be exact. It's the number of jobs he's helped create in nearly 7 years as my Congressman: 0.