NYC Letter: Prescript For Thee, Not Me -- The Corporate Jet

Day 901 of CHOPE

(A) From the moment I take office, my top priority will be to do everything I can to make sure your tax dollars are protected.

(B) You can't get corporate jets...on the taxpayers' dime. (Applause.) There's got to be some accountability and some responsibility, and that's something that I intend to impose as President of the United States. (Applause.)

Mr. Obama,
establishing his administration's principles
of oversight for the taxpayers' dime
(A) LA CROSSE, Wisconsin October 1, 2008 (CNN)
(B) ELKHART, Indiana February 9, 2009 (White House)

PRIVILEGE IS THE EXCUSE
Have Jet. Will Travel.

MILITARY PEGS HOURLY
AIR FORCE ONE COST AT $181G,
AS OBAMA SETS TRAVEL RECORD

November 24, 2010 (FNC) - The average American could buy a house for the amount of money it takes to run Air Force One every hour. The U.S. military has provided an updated estimate on that cost, first published by a taxpayer watchdog group and confirmed by FoxNews.com, and the number is staggering -- $181,757 per hour. That's the price tag for shuttling around President Obama, who, as it turns out, has spent more days abroad in his first two years than any other president.

... Asked why other public estimates, which typically did not exceed $100,000 [per hour], were so much lower, [Master Sgt. Jeff Capenos, with the 89th Airlift Wing,] said: "They were probably inaccurate."

The master sergeant takes the prize for meiotic damning.

NINETY PERCENT OF OBAMA TRAVEL
AT LEAST PARTLY POLITICS

July 9, 2011 (WHD) - Nearly 90 percent of President Obama’s domestic travel in the first six months of this year has been either partially or entirely political, and almost all the costs are borne by taxpayers, according to a White House Dossier Analysis.

Since returning from vacation in Hawaii Jan. 4, Obama has embarked on 25 domestic trips involving use of Air Force One. Of the total, 22 have involved either a fundraiser, travel to a presidential battleground state, or both.

Only three times has the president traveled for purely non-political purposes: a trip to visit flooding victims in Tennessee; a visit to New York City to meet with 9/11 families and lay a wreath; and a trip to Albany, New York to speak about the economy.

... Of the 11 excursions Obama has made that included a fundraiser, nine have also featured an “official” event, which helps the Obama campaign stick more of the bill to taxpayers. ... The most egregious of these kinds of voyages appears to have occurred on April 27, when Obama and the first lady jetted to Chicago to tape the Oprah Winfrey show, and then the president flew on to New York for fundraisers. Mrs. Obama flew directly back to Washington, creating an expense for taxpayers instead of for Mrs. Winfrey, who presumably could have flown to the White House to tape the interview.

We are not suggesting that the President of the United States fly coach. We won't bother suggesting that the President of the United States is the president first and the marquee mooch for the DNC second. [Weary pause.] We only ask that if the president is going to push corporate jets as the bugbears of misplaced privilege and waste that he do something to beat back the irony.

CHOPE.

Re-election. The people's business.