Private Jets

Let's talk about private jets. Our new President and our representatives in Congress have taken every opportunity to slam corporate CEOs for traveling in private jets. It's kind of like the pot calling the kettle black.

President Obama went to great lengths to scold CEOs and tell the American people that the days of jetting around in private planes was over. Yet barely two weeks into his term, the president made a trip aboard Air Force One from Washington D.C. to Newport News, VA to address the Democrats at their retreat in Williamsburg. To make this trip happen required not only Air Force One, but at least two of the Marine Corps helicopters that ferry the president from the White House to Andrews AFB, another at the Newport News airport to ferry him to Williamsburg and back. They also used an Air Force C-5 cargo jet to move his motorcade to Newport News just in case he decided to travel via the highway instead of by helicpoter. Is your head about to explode yet? It's less than 250 miles from the White House to Williamsburg as the crow flys. In the time it took to ferry him from the White House to Andrews AFB, fly on Air Force One to Newport News, then ferry him to Williamsburg, he could have made the trip entirely on Marine One and saved you and I tens of thousands of dollars. That's just one example.

You would be amazed at the number of "official fact finding trips" congressional delegations make using their "own" fleet of tax payer funded jets (courtesy of the USAF). How many times a month do you think Nancy Pelosi jets back and forth across the country on a dedicated Air Force C-20 (Gulfstream G-5 equivalent). You would be amazed. And they have the nerve to lecture the very people who fund their campaigns and fuel the economic engine that makes this country function.

To be fair, there have been abuses and misuses by corporations. Corporations need to make a profit in order to survive; they also have a social obligation to be good stewards of their resources. Why aren't we expecting, no demanding, the same from our government?

Let's take our government back America!