Lawmakers, others say critics of China trip are 'boneheads'

Critical of a recent trip to China by some Utah lawmakers? Those who felt the need to write letters to newspaper editors about it were described as "boneheads" on Tuesday.

During a meeting of the Legislature's Utah International Trade Commission, the group's co-chairman, Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Lehi, acknowledged that he did not read newspapers, "so I don't know what they're saying. ... It sounds like they're pretty bonehead-type stuff."

Madsen and other commission members were talking about criticism of the eight-day, relationship-building trip taken by 13 legislators and two staffers — a ven- ture costing $36,000.

Lew Cramer, chief executive officer of the World Trade Center Utah, said he would be happy to discuss the trip's value with lawmakers' constituents.

"Some of the letters to the editor, I thought, you, writing and complaining about this trip, you ought to send back your high school diploma because you didn't earn it," Cramer told the commission. "Whatever you learned in civics, you didn't deserve to keep it, because these letters are so basically naive about the kind of world that we live in today."

Rep. Kerry Gibson, R-Ogden, said he has "a hard time responding to some of the questions and some of the criticisms, especially because it's so difficult to put a dollar value on an experience like this."

"I think as we discuss this it becomes easier to do that, at least to justify. But to those who want to be critical and, for whatever reason, won't look at the larger picture, how do we help them understand the monetary return?" Gibson asked.

Cramer said the money spent on the trip was "the best money we spent this year in the state."

He later said Utah has many elements in place to be at the forefront in fostering international trade.

"We should lead the world in this. There's just no reason why we shouldn't, boneheads aside," Cramer said. "But we'll work with them. I'm inclined to call some of them up and have a little one-on-one chat and explain to them how this world is working."

Cramer insisted it would be helpful to have some legislators on an upcoming trade mission to India. He took offense to a description of the China trip as a "junket" and noted that forging international relationships takes time, usually with tangible results being difficult to quantify.