The US government is a one huge customer and I don't really have a problem with private businesses footing the bill to have elected offices visit their plants. ...as long as everything is documented and legal.
But when the businesses foot the bill for a luxury vacation for politicians under the guise of a seaside business meetings, that's another thing.
GlaxoSmithKline also has co-sponsored at least 30 congressional trips -- some to exotic locations -- at a cost of at least $54,000
http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?dist=newsfinder&siteid=google&guid=%7BE7F75EC3-CF64-4FB5-BBA0-26B0BBA7DD9F%7D&keyword=
In 2004, the company was one of a group of sponsors that flew three lawmakers and one staff member to Brazil to focus on expanding opportunities for African-American-owned businesses. The trips -- taken by Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-Mo, Rep. Caroly Kilpatrick, D-Mich., Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, and one of her aides -- cost more than $32,000.
A year earlier, GlaxoSmithKline was one of several sponsors, including drug companies Eli Lilly and Pfizer, that sponsored a trip taken by Rep. Solomon Ortiz, D-Tex., to Puerto Rico. The companies spent at least $5,700, to send Ortiz to a retreat designed to improve relations between the congressional minority caucuses.
Couldn't they do that in D.C.?