HHS Secretary Tom Price travel scandal costs him his job rightly, inevitably

Few things are as infuriating to Americans as government officials blithely wasting taxpayers’ money to make their own lives more comfortable. As new details kept emerging about how Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price had used private and government planes for his own convenience in recent months, public — and President Donald Trump’s — anger boiled over.

When Politico reported the total cost to taxpayers of his travel had topped $1 million since May, Price’s resignation on Friday became inevitable.

Given Trump’s oft-repeated pledge to “drain the swamp” in Washington, his disgust with Price was appropriate. Pushing Price out sets an example for other top officials in his administration. While their cases aren’t as objectionable as Price’s, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt also have used costly air travel that can only raise eyebrows in an era of massive government deficits, and Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin should be ashamed his wife got a de facto government-paid vacation while accompanying him on a trip to Europe.

Zinke has pushed back hard at his critics, saying his flights were approved by ethics officials. But it’s doubtful many Americans think Zinke charging taxpayers $12,375 to charter a plane owned by oil and gas executives to get from Las Vegas to his Montana hometown is smart or ethical. Every government official should know the public expects them to be thrifty. It’s a fair and reasonable expectation.

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