Just days after President Obama announced a new austerity program to save billions in federal spending and travel, his attorney general, Eric Holder, is spending five days on the taxpayer's dime hopping around Caribbean islands in the name of improving law enforcement in the region.

Holder's stated mission for the trip was to sign law-enforcement agreements with authorities in the area and review a case resulting in the seizure of condos from a Medicare fraud sting in the region, substantially smaller than the department's usual pursuits prosecuting massive Wall Street fraud, terrorists, and murderers. He also held a summit with other attorneys general in the region and will attend an international conference devoted to promoting democracy in the Western Hemisphere.

Lawmakers who huddled in a rainy, gloomy Washington on Wednesday waiting for an elusive deal to finally emerge to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit were not amused by the fact that Holder was staying at Hilton and Hyatt hotels in the tropical climates of the Dominican Republic, Barbados, and Trinidad. Specifically, they questioned why Holder needed five days in the region.