Remember not too long ago when Congress freaked out about auto execs riding in private jets? Members of Congress berated executives of General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler in committee hearings and the media. Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY) said:
“It’s almost like seeing a guy show up at the soup kitchen in a high hat and tuxedo.”
Well, Congress has decided they feel left out by not having their OWN private planes. Just before recess, the House approved almost $200 million for the Air Force to buy three private jets for Members of Congress. That kind of money is nothing when we’re looking at spending a trillion dollars on health care, so why not just throw in a few jets?
Everyone knows MOCs work so hard that they can’t possibly ride on a plane with us plebeians when they vacation to Hawaii. (Members of Congress are also known for showing up at soup kitchens in tuxedos, we just don’t talk about it.) We the taxpayers sincerely apologize for ever expecting our high and mighty representatives to stoop to our level.
So thanks to Congress, Detroit auto-makers got their bailout and you got your airplanes. I guess everyone is happy. Except for us.
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Good article!
Some atuo execs also got fired by Obama. Can we fire these knuckleheads too?
That is truely the point. Why can’t congress just mingle with us…the great unwashed? This goes for both sides of the isle. I’m going to write my congressman on this issue and see if he would use the plane. Being voted into congress is almost like hitting the lottery these days. Many forget this job is supposed to suck.
The Democrats in Congress are just like those pigs in “Animal Farm”.
And I’m just like that giant muscular, handsome horse. No not Sarah Jessica Parker.
Or show up to a soup kitchen wearing $500 fugly shoes.
It looks like someone beat me to the punch on this story. Passanger planes are good for us, but god forbid if someone from Congress has to mingle with their contiguents. I bet Pelosi still has her private jet. How much fuel does she burn?
One would think that a representative would not call a dinner jacket by the plebeian term “tuxedo,” and that a top hat (or, as the honorable member says, a “high hat”) is not worn with a dinner jacket.
Why don’t we dig a little deeper and question WHY these same people who are trying to get this huge global warming bill through the Senate are chosing to buy and fly private jets?
So WE have to cut back to save the planet but our elected officials get to fly privately? Seems to me that something is amiss….
Glad to see that the “People’s Party” is still sticking it to those self-righteous Republicans!
Freakshow – welcome to the hypocracy that is our Democratic Party
Pasta, I’m writing “Mrs. Pastafarian” all OVER my Trapper Keeper.
I saw a special on this a while ago. They were going to be like mini-Air Force Ones
Uh, Beige? That wouldn’t be a Dawson’s Creek Trapper Keeper, would it?
Curses! Beige has foiled me yet again!
….get off my lawn.
Don’t worry guys, the people are starting to question their hard working, self sacrificing representitives in government. In fact many of them are meeting with their constituants in town halls and running like scared rabbits when the angry voters show up. Not to mention PEBO has started a snitch line to report any and all abuses of our brave elected officials. So the tables have finally turned.
I’ve tended to believe we should more frequently oust the incumbent. Try to make sure the elected officials understand that they need to make sense or they’re gone.
I’m free this weekend. Anybody wanna go incumbent ousting with me?
Here’s another hypocritical move:
“Post-racial” President nominates racist for Supreme Court, “Not-racist” Senate confirms her. It is good to know that my Virginian senators are just as racist as the senators of 50 years ago!
They’ve just switched targets.
Hah, we can only wish. You know, they didn’t use any such US guvmint owned *special* plane to bring home those 2 women from N Korea…..Stephen Bing the Hollywood producer let them use his plane.
Beige, don’t forget to write the “4ever” part……..lol
Pearce, if we disguise ourselves as yard gnomes and wear pointy red hats can we stay on your lawn?
Ya’ll have to excuse me, I’ve started some new migraine medicine this afternoon and it is some really good stuff. Look at all the pretty colors!!
…pointy-hatted yard gnomes are always welcome. Along with those bright pink flamingos with the wings that spin with the breeze.
Just none of those kids with their baggy pants and their devil music and their marijuana and their space ponies.
OT – because I’m too lazy to open my email program to send this forehead smack in, http://perezhilton.com/2009-08-06-your-first-look-50. Heidi, the jeebus freak, proudly showing off her Playboy spread cover for this month. What a retarded hypocrite.
These are some of the best comments, like, EVER.
If Congress thinks they’re all too good to share a “health” “plan” with the flyovers, what makes any of us think they’d deign to travel the way the rest of us do? America may have been founded at least in part on the idea that royalty is bogus, but Congress, and especially The Anointed One, are working on overturning that.
Whatever. Like, John Hughes died yesterday.
And I love the fact that Boxer said that these are “well dressed” people coming to shout at their representatives so it is a manufactured events. Really? Cause they just look like pissed off Americans who are upset that their government thinks they are a bunch of inbred, ignorant people who cannt think for themselves.
Update: $500 million for 8 planes. Sniff Sniff. What is that nasty smell. Oh, yeah. Hypocracy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124960404730212955.html
not only can they not fly like the rest of us, none of them will sign up for the health care reform they are trying to shove down our throats. Disgusting pigs.
Jenn, why would they? They have amazing coverage and would only want our health care to suffer, not theirs
I read the Air Foce didn’t ask for the Gulfstreams. They asked for tankers in a different request. They frown upon going over budget for items they didn’t ask for because it will affect another aspect of the budget down the road…the US Air Force has better budgeting practices than the government.
My brother in law is a pilot in the Army, used to fly apaches now he shuttles the big brass around the world. He frequently comments on how the generals and their staff are happy to have a clean plane to get to places like Jabutie Africa and never complain that the aircraft he flys are sometimes 10 years old. I would much rather spend the money on better tranport craft for our soldiers and not to cart Nacny and her bunch around in luxury and style.
Heck, Spend the money on ammo and armor for our troops. Oh that right. There is no longer a “war on terror”. I remember 9/11 and it is a WAR ON TERROR, dumbasses
$200 million? Why does that number sound familiar? Oh, yeah! We could have bought another F-22 instead! But it’s more important that Nancy Pelosi not have to make a refueling stop in Kansas when jetting home for the weekend. Besides — like the talking points readers keep reminding us — ‘The Air Force doesn’t want those planes.’
You are so on target Pasta. Some are indeed more equal than others, and “the pigs are walking.”
Great points everyone else, also! Too true Army Wife, did she expect us to come to the meetings barefoot and in rags?! Probably expected protesters to have missing teeth as well.
:-p
Heck, the Air Force doesn’t want to transport Congress. I’m sure they would rather Congress fly commercial, too.
This reminds me of the stimulus money sent to Milwaukee for their school system for expansion. The same school system that is shedding students and has over a dozen empty schools. They didn’t even ASK for the money, but somehow it wound up in the stimulus bill.
Jannah, you forgot the muumuus, wifebeaters, and the sponge rollers….evidently those darn protesters didn’t read the memo on dress code.
In the interests of fairness I feel that I must point out that the more they are provided for legally(as galling as it might be sometimes), the less susceptible they might be to bribery from other parties.
If that’s the case Mandamus, let’s give ‘em all free hooker vouchers too.
@Minnow–that was included in the porkulus bill. So to speak. You know, the one that was posted in its gajillion-page entirety, for something like 15 minutes?
Hey, if free hooker vouchers kept them clean from lobbyist and corporate special interest influence wouldn’t that be worth it?
Free hooker vouchers?! Finally a bill I can get behind!
**sits in the corner**
Thing is about those lobbyist, the same ones that Obama did not like, he hired. go figure. The Messiah was on TV AGAIN the other day spouting nonsense about passing the first bill with no pork or wasteful spending in it. Seriously? What about the $30 million to save a mouse in SF. How does that stimulate the economy?
Gee I was feeling kinda good because I was shopping around for a used Gulfstream III. Maybe congress can buy some of the automakers planes.
‘cept most of the automakers RENTED theirs…
Oh man, Koka, I’m gettin’ me summa them sponge rollers! X-D
“Hey, if free hooker vouchers kept them clean from lobbyist and corporate special interest influence wouldn’t that be worth it?”
—–
There’s a simple way to keep corporate special interests out. Separate Business from State and State from Business.
But that’ll never happen. Government won’t give up its regulatory authority. What the anti-corporate mindset really wants is to keep Business out of Government while keeping Government *IN* Business.
As it is, I’m much more concerned about non-corporate special interests, such as the NAACP, NOW, Emily’s List, PETA, AFL-CIO, and other various whiny “disadvantaged” groups out there. After all, there’s tremendous power in being a victim these days.
Yeah..everybody is listening to those whiny nutbunnies and not to the real victims….the average John and Jane Doe who is being told to either swallow it or choke on it.
Jannah, I’ll meet ya at Sally’s Beauty Supply and we’ll get us some of those pink sponge rollers….LOL…….then at the next protest we can show up and stand our ground.
The rest of ya’ll are invited too, only none of you guys wear baggy shorts. Pearce doesn’t like them.
Looks like this group from Congress road the ‘gravy plane’ all the way to the Antarctic on our dime. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124967502810515267.html
Because nothing stops “climate change” in the Antarctic like flying there on a plane!!
Vince–you’re absolutely right. Except, add SEIU to that list.
I know we already sent them tea bags in the mail, but can we actually teabag hypocritical congresspeople? I’d pay extra taxes to see that. They won’t let us in the White House to speak directly to Our Glorious Leader (he hates it when the unwashed masses trample his lawn) but I’d really love to hear your ideas for pestering his sycophants and shoe shiners. Protest GO!
Anna, Bill Maher says you’re stupid. He says we’re ALL stupid, actually. Because his SAG card means he wouldn’t be subject to a lot of the crap we’d have to deal with, so the fact that we don’t like it means he’s smarter than us, neener neener.
I’d suggest teabagging Maher, but something tells me that nothing would make him happier.
Looks like a change in plans.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/10/house-leaders-drop-plans-buy-fancy-jets/?test=latestnews