Obama On Air Force One While Sequester Festers

Sequester Update : Congresswoman tells Obama : 'Stop Scaring People.'

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Air Force One...President Obama's Favorite Toy

The president of the United States is afforded many perks, benefits and luxuries, as he or she should be, given the prestige and power of the office. 

As president, he or she is required to make many trips during their tenure in office, not only to States within the Union, but to far away lands as well. Traveling in style, so to speak, is one of the many perks, benefits and luxuries. 

President's Office On Air Force One

The president and his entourage travel on Air Force One, (a Boeing 747)  so named as it is part of the fleet of aircraft under the auspices of the United States Air Force, flown by Air Force pilots. It’s a flying command center with the ability to handle everything from a nuclear war to a re-election campaign. 

Presidents used to fly commercially until 1945 when, according to Wikipedia, "A C-54 Skymaster was then converted for presidential use; this aircraft, dubbed the Sacred Cow, transported President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Yalta Conference in February 1945, and was subsequently used for another two years by President Harry S. Truman."
And so the ferrying of presidents hither and yon on a specially designed aircraft, began.

Bye-Bye

So much for the history of Air Force One. How much does it fly? A lot! And this president seems to spend more time flying around on Air Force One than he does in his palatial palace known as the White House. Is it just me or does it seem like President Obama is somewhere other than Washington D.C. every day? It's difficult to get a real handle on just how many trips aboard "the people's airplane" he has taken. But one estimate is that in 2011, Mr. Obama flew on Air Force One 172 times. That's 10 days shy of half the year! 

This is the year of the sequester, automatic budget cuts, crafted and signed into law by Obama, that take affect March 1, unless congress acts to do otherwise...and as of this writing it looks like Congress 'ain't gonna do nuthin.' Neither is the president. Congress took last week off rather than stay put in D.C. to figure out this mess and the president took off on Air Force One to tell the country how bad HIS law is and Congress better act. He's flown someplace different every day. 
Members of Congress this week have urged him to stay on the ground, get back in the Oval Office and do something he seems adverse to doing....LEAD. 

Here's the irony. The president is railing against the sequester saying the cuts will be damaging and cause all kinds of economic problems. In his mind we can't afford the sequestere's $84 billion in cuts, while at the same time he's racking up $180,000 and hour in Air Force One operating costs to tell us this. By the way, that $180K does not include all the other stuff that goes with it...security, food, lodging for the throng that travels with him, rented vehicles and the list goes on. 

The 172 trips in 2011? Not knowing how many hours Air Force One was in operation for each trip it's hard to put a number on the total...but you can bet it would have gone a long way toward solving (put your favorite government program here) over-spending problem.

Mr. Obama needs to grow up and act presidential, and not spend so much time playing on big toys for big boys!




                                        


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