Nobody expects the vice president of the United States to fly in coach or carry his own bags. In today’s world, high-ranking government officials have an entourage of aides, spokespeople and, of course, a security team.

In recent months, federal spending has dominated the national debate, President Barack Obama repeatedly warning that the federal spending restraint imposed by the sequester would cause serious pain across much of the economy.

Given all that, was it necessary that Vice President Joe Biden’s recent one-day visits to London and Paris cost $459,338 and $585,000, respectively?

News reports detailed the costs of Biden’s one-night stay at luxury hotels in London and Paris. Nobody would expect the vice president to stay in a budget hotel, but did anyone in the White House question renting 136 rooms at Biden’s hotel in London? Could Biden’s visit have gotten by with only 100 rooms or maybe even just 50?

Was there any talk about reducing the tab for Biden’s travel?

Obama repeatedly warned about the pain the sequester would cause, with across-the-board spending cuts hitting preschool programs, causing long waits at airports, even causing criminals to be released from prisons due to guards losing their jobs.

John Baer, a Philadelphia Daily News columnist, described the situation as “Biden’s Bubble,” noting that our elected officials in Washington, D.C, are far removed from the daily lives that most Americans experience.

At about the same time as Biden was spending a million dollars for a single night’s stay in London and Paris, the Obama administration announced it would end the White House tours popular with schoolchildren because of budget constraints.

At a time when millions of Americans are struggling financially, Washington’s political games and unrestrained, unquestioned spending make it clear that our elected officials do live in a bubble or are totally tone deaf.

Cheer Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Robert Casey’s proposed legislation dealing with Legionnaires disease in the nation’s Veterans Affairs facilities shouldn’t be necessary, but it is. A Legionnaires outbreak that began in 2011 at the Pittsburgh VA hospital and that continued throughout most of 2012 confirms that.Under the bill Casey intends to introduce, Veterans Affairs facilities will be required to report — within 24 hours of detection — every Legionnaires case and whether Legionella has been found in the facility’s water system.In the Pittsburgh VA outbreak, according to a Pittsburgh newspaper, the facility’s leadership never notified all of its doctors and other employees that it had been battling persistent levels of Legionella in its water since early 2011 — and was experiencing more and more Legionnaires cases that might have been contracted in the VA.A provision in Casey’s proposed legislation stipulates which agencies would have to be notified of any such outbreaks, but also would require VA facilities to notify the facility’s doctors and employees within 24 hours.Casey was correct in his assessment of the situation during a news conference in the Allegheny County Courthouse:“To be blunt about this, we shouldn’t have to legislate this. This should be standard practice at the VA — but it isn’t.”Once Casey introduces his bill, projected for April, the proposed legislation should move quickly through the legislative process.“This is, I think, the bare minimum that should be done in the face of the deaths of five veterans (at the Pittsburgh VA) who served this country,” Casey said.The senator’s anger about the Pittsburgh situation, which sickened a total of 21 veterans, was not an overreaction.

Jeer How could state Supreme Court Justice Joan Orie Melvin be so naive?In a letter to Gov. Tom Corbett announcing that she will resign from the high court effective May 1, Melvin said, “It is my fervent hope that my service over the past three decades will not be tainted by the circumstances surrounding my departure.”Unfortunately for her, it will be. Regardless of what good she has done during her years of public service, she will most likely be remembered for the corruption trial over misuse of taxpayer-paid staffers for political work that led to her conviction. She will be remembered for having been found guilty of breaking the law and the public trust.Melvin is scheduled to be sentenced May 7. In the trial that concluded last month, she and her sister, Janine Orie, were found guilty of theft of services, conspiracy and misappropriation of state property.A third Orie sister, former state Sen. Jane Orie, whose district included southern Butler County, currently is in prison following a separate conviction on similar charges related to her own political campaigns.Melvin provided commendable judicial service over 15 years, and she showed respect for taxpayers by declining a pay raise. But she probably will be most recognizable years from now as a judge who failed to stay on the right side of the law, just like a predecessor, Rolf Larsen, who was impeached and removed by the Senate in 1994.Melvin is naive to hold out hope that her conviction will be overshadowed by the 8,000 decisions she rendered during her judicial career.She violated the public trust and deserves more than a slap on the wrist at her May 7 sentencing.