Price is Out
- Thread starter vanzandt
- Start date
"The Price is Right"... out the door.
Well the price for excessive private plane travel is getting the boot in this administration.
Well the price for excessive private plane travel is getting the boot in this administration.
Who can blame him? What was he supposed to do, fly commercial and get harassed like Ivanka and Jared were? I'm sure other cabinet officials used private planes. Certainly they did in the Obama administration. A lot, and for pleasure trips as well as business. Leon Panetta used a government plane to commute nearly every weekend to California.
"Like these officials, top figures during the Obama administration raised eyebrows with some of their travel.
In 2014, Holder, while attorney general, boarded a government-owned Gulfstream and flew to the Belmont Stakes Thoroughbred horse race in New York with his daughters, their boyfriends and two security officers.
According to records obtained by The Daily Caller from the Department of Justice, that trip cost the government $14,440. But Holder only had to reimburse the government $955 for that flight -- the equivalent cost of a coach commercial airline ticket for each non-law enforcement passenger.
At the time, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, criticized Holder and Mueller for their use of expensive Gulfstream V jets for personal travel.
“Nobody disputes that the Attorney General and the FBI Director should have access to the secure communications, but, for instance, there’s no reason they can’t take a less expensive mode of transportation, or cut their personal travel,” Grassley said.
GOVERNMENT REPORT SHOWS HOLDER, MUELLER USED LUXURY JETS FOR PERSONAL TRAVEL
According to statistics provided by a senior administration official, the Trump White House has authorized fewer trips on military planes for senior officials than the Obama administration did during the first eight months in office.
“If you look at the Obama administration, and you take a look at the amount of time that they spent in the air, they spent a lot of time in the air,” Trump said Friday, before Price's resignation.
From Jan. 20 to Sept. 19, the Trump administration authorized 77 military flights, while the Obama administration allowed 94 flights during the same time period, according to the stats.
Leon Panetta, who served as both CIA director and defense secretary during the Obama years, frequently used a government airplane to commute back and forth from Washington to California nearly every weekend at taxpayer expense.
The Washington Times reported then that each flight cost about $32,000 but Panetta only had to pay $630 per trip, because that was the cost of an equivalent round-trip commercial flight. It noted that the government required defense secretaries to use a military plane for travel, and Panetta had the approval of Obama to fly home every weekend.
“The White House understood when Mr. Panetta took the job that he would return to Monterey to visit his family, as he did when he was director of the CIA,” a senior Obama administration official told the newspaper at the time. “That’s where his family lives, after all.”
Perhaps the most famous example of an Obama official using a non-commercial plane came when then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch met with former President Bill Clinton on June 27, 2016 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport during the presidential election.
The 45-minute encounter on her plane stirred up controversy because the FBI was still investigating Hillary Clinton emails during her tenure as secretary of state.
“I do regret sitting down and having a conversation with him because it did give people concern,” Lynch later said of the tarmac meeting in a television interview.'
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...s-also-took-pricey-non-commercial-planes.html
"Like these officials, top figures during the Obama administration raised eyebrows with some of their travel.
In 2014, Holder, while attorney general, boarded a government-owned Gulfstream and flew to the Belmont Stakes Thoroughbred horse race in New York with his daughters, their boyfriends and two security officers.
According to records obtained by The Daily Caller from the Department of Justice, that trip cost the government $14,440. But Holder only had to reimburse the government $955 for that flight -- the equivalent cost of a coach commercial airline ticket for each non-law enforcement passenger.
At the time, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, criticized Holder and Mueller for their use of expensive Gulfstream V jets for personal travel.
“Nobody disputes that the Attorney General and the FBI Director should have access to the secure communications, but, for instance, there’s no reason they can’t take a less expensive mode of transportation, or cut their personal travel,” Grassley said.
GOVERNMENT REPORT SHOWS HOLDER, MUELLER USED LUXURY JETS FOR PERSONAL TRAVEL
According to statistics provided by a senior administration official, the Trump White House has authorized fewer trips on military planes for senior officials than the Obama administration did during the first eight months in office.
“If you look at the Obama administration, and you take a look at the amount of time that they spent in the air, they spent a lot of time in the air,” Trump said Friday, before Price's resignation.
From Jan. 20 to Sept. 19, the Trump administration authorized 77 military flights, while the Obama administration allowed 94 flights during the same time period, according to the stats.
Leon Panetta, who served as both CIA director and defense secretary during the Obama years, frequently used a government airplane to commute back and forth from Washington to California nearly every weekend at taxpayer expense.
The Washington Times reported then that each flight cost about $32,000 but Panetta only had to pay $630 per trip, because that was the cost of an equivalent round-trip commercial flight. It noted that the government required defense secretaries to use a military plane for travel, and Panetta had the approval of Obama to fly home every weekend.
“The White House understood when Mr. Panetta took the job that he would return to Monterey to visit his family, as he did when he was director of the CIA,” a senior Obama administration official told the newspaper at the time. “That’s where his family lives, after all.”
Perhaps the most famous example of an Obama official using a non-commercial plane came when then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch met with former President Bill Clinton on June 27, 2016 at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport during the presidential election.
The 45-minute encounter on her plane stirred up controversy because the FBI was still investigating Hillary Clinton emails during her tenure as secretary of state.
“I do regret sitting down and having a conversation with him because it did give people concern,” Lynch later said of the tarmac meeting in a television interview.'
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...s-also-took-pricey-non-commercial-planes.html
Great day for President Trump.
He cut his losses and preserved his right to speak out against the swamp, including Clintondom and Demdom in general.
Obama should have shitcanned and kicked the arse to the curb of the dimwit woman who spent half a million on a junket trip to Spain. Oh wait, that was his wife. Nevermind. That probably would not have worked but dont think for a minute that the people dont remember it.
He cut his losses and preserved his right to speak out against the swamp, including Clintondom and Demdom in general.
Obama should have shitcanned and kicked the arse to the curb of the dimwit woman who spent half a million on a junket trip to Spain. Oh wait, that was his wife. Nevermind. That probably would not have worked but dont think for a minute that the people dont remember it.
Great day for President indeed.
John Kelly draws a line in the sand — demands Trump choose between him and Kushner
White House chief of staff John Kelly is reportedly considering modifying the role of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Politico reports Kelly was “livid” after learning that Kushner had been negotiating behind the then Secretary of Homeland Security’s back with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
According to three sources, Politico reported Secretary Kelly, “called senior White House officials and demanded a meeting with Trump to deliver something of an ultimatum: If Kushner was going to freelance on DHS issues, the president would have to choose between his son-in-law and the four-star general serving in his Cabinet.”
Kelly is reported seeking “a formal organizational chart on top of Trump’s formerly chaotic West Wing” that has continued to be plagued by scandals and failure since the former Marine General took over as Chief of Staff.
Trump’s chief of staff isn’t the only one wondering about the roles of family members turned senior staff.
“Privately, Trump has asked some senior staffers their thoughts on how Kushner and Ivanka Trump can withstand the personal attacks, according to White House officials,” Politico noted.
Legal liability may eventually drive out Kushner, Politico notes, “the concerns voiced to Trump by staffers and lawyers has been more about the legal ramifications that Kushner could inflict on the president, related to the ongoing probes into Russia’s role in the 2016 election.”
How the Russian probes develop may decide Kushner’s future as a government employee.
“The media glare turned back on the couple earlier this week, when the chair and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee expressed concern that Kushner had failed to disclose his use of a private email account for White House business and that he did not turn over documents from that account to the committee,” Politico noted. “Kushner has also come under scrutiny for attending a Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton during the campaign.”
John Kelly draws a line in the sand — demands Trump choose between him and Kushner
White House chief of staff John Kelly is reportedly considering modifying the role of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Politico reports Kelly was “livid” after learning that Kushner had been negotiating behind the then Secretary of Homeland Security’s back with Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
According to three sources, Politico reported Secretary Kelly, “called senior White House officials and demanded a meeting with Trump to deliver something of an ultimatum: If Kushner was going to freelance on DHS issues, the president would have to choose between his son-in-law and the four-star general serving in his Cabinet.”
Kelly is reported seeking “a formal organizational chart on top of Trump’s formerly chaotic West Wing” that has continued to be plagued by scandals and failure since the former Marine General took over as Chief of Staff.
Trump’s chief of staff isn’t the only one wondering about the roles of family members turned senior staff.
“Privately, Trump has asked some senior staffers their thoughts on how Kushner and Ivanka Trump can withstand the personal attacks, according to White House officials,” Politico noted.
Legal liability may eventually drive out Kushner, Politico notes, “the concerns voiced to Trump by staffers and lawyers has been more about the legal ramifications that Kushner could inflict on the president, related to the ongoing probes into Russia’s role in the 2016 election.”
How the Russian probes develop may decide Kushner’s future as a government employee.
“The media glare turned back on the couple earlier this week, when the chair and vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee expressed concern that Kushner had failed to disclose his use of a private email account for White House business and that he did not turn over documents from that account to the committee,” Politico noted. “Kushner has also come under scrutiny for attending a Trump Tower meeting with a Kremlin-connected lawyer offering dirt on Hillary Clinton during the campaign.”