Where Was the Outrage Then?

Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt is under fire for flying high on the taxpayers’ dime. Fair enough — but why did his Obama-era predecessors escape the same scrutiny?

Pruitt spent roughly $120,000 on travel in his first year on the job, according to records the EPA provided to the House Oversight Committee.

Almost $90,000 went for food, hotels, airfare and a military jet for his trip with nine staffers for the four-day G-7 environmental summit in Italy last June. Nearly 40 grand more covered a trip to Morocco to promote US exports of environmentally friendly natural gas.

Many critics have hit Pruitt for taking first-class seats when EPA guidelines suggest coach — but he argues that’s called for because he’s been getting death threats from pretty much his first day on the job. (Some greens really, really don’t like him.) Indeed, a quarter of his travel bill was $30,000 for his security detail.

And The Washington Free Beacon’s Elizabeth Harrington dug up some more context: President Obama’s EPA poohbahs traveled just as large.

Lisa Jackson, EPA director from 2009 to 2013, racked up more than $332,000 on four overseas trips. Gina McCarthy, the chief in 2013-17, spent nearly $630,000 on flights and security in her 10 international travels.

None of which made headlines, even on the Web — though their yearly average bill was a bit above Pruitt’s one-year total.

Maybe Pruitt should pass on the junkets and save the taxpayers some money, but he’s not costing them any more than the Democrats who held the same job.