Fuel for Air Force One = $6,029 per hour >

[Stephanie]

Since the only purpose of these trips is to rehabilitate Bush's image, shouldn't they be billed to the RNC?

McClellan said Tuesday the White House planned to take other steps to conserve energy and that orders were issued to staff asking them to restrict nonessential travel and to reduce use of electricity by shutting off printers, fax machines and lights.

The White House said it was reducing the size of the presidential motorcade, which numbered about a dozen vehicles in Beaumont but can run more than 20 vehicles for some trips.

COST SHARPLY UP TO RUN AIR FORCE ONE

But one of the heftiest costs of presidential travel entails flying Air Force One, a reconfigured Boeing 747-200B. Bush already has made stops in Mississippi, Colorado, Texas and Louisiana, including four in New Orleans, the low-lying city flooded by Katrina.

While precise costs were not available, Maj. Brenda Campbell, an Air Force spokeswoman at the Pentagon, said that as of a month ago, before Katrina struck, fuel expenses for the biggest airplane of the Air Force One fleet was $6,029 per hour, compared to $3,974 an hour in fiscal year 2004.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20050927/us_nm/hurricanes_bush_dc_1

[hiley]

1. Yes

Bill to the RNC!
Great idea we should have a petition to do just that.

[BlueJac]

2. Park it George!

Save the fuel fool.

[Fenris]

3. If he "needs" it for travel and doesn't want to cut back...

Can't he request a smaller plane. I mean, does he need a fucking 747 to go from here to there?

[Iktomiwicasa]

4. I agree

that Bush is rotten, evil, meanspirited ect. ect. but in reality you folks don't holler about Bill cruising around in airfarce one. It's rather a non-issue.

[Stephanie]

7. George Bush is on a permanent campaign

SEVEN trips to the Gulf Coast in the past few weeks, the only purpose served is photo-ops.

Do you REALLY want to compare Bill Clinton's use of AF1 to George Bush's? You might not have noticed at the time, but Clinton used to actually stay in Washington and do WORK, you know, formulate policy and set the agenda. He didn't spend his days performing in front of ridiculous backdrops all over the country.

[BeHereNow]

30. Let's talk about Clinton's failure to pardon Leonard Peltier...

Clinton was egregious in PLENTY of ways.
Pardoning CRIMNALS while he left an
innocent man to rot, among other things, is right up there with
the Bushco atrocities in my book.
As amatter of fact- the Clinton Clan set the stage
for MANY of the actions possible under the Bush Clan.
Still think there is a difference?
Think again.
One smiles wile FUCKINg us and
the other snarls while FUCKING us.

Sorry, I have no use for either the Clinton or the Bush clan.
Two side of the same coin spent to FUCK the rest of us.

BHN

[punpirate]

12. There is a fundamental difference between...

Bush II and Clinton in this regard. Clinton spent a lot more time in DC.

Bush has royally abused the availability of all aircraft--for vacation travel, for campaigning, for fundraising, particularly, and for his ridiculous stage-managed road shows to talk up war, Social Security deform, etc.

The same is true of Cheney--the situation was so bad a couple of years ago that the VP's office had to borrow from other budgets to pay for Cheney's excess travel.

It's a difference of both kind and degree between the two. Even Reagan, who saw every political event as an opportunity to be back on a sound stage, didn't travel this much.

On edit, it occurs to me to add this postulation. Bush, I think, likes being president very, very much, but, like Cheney, he sees the position as being CEO of the world. Like other CEOs, he thinks the company jet is one of his major perks. It's always at his disposal and as long as he can justify the travel--even in some tenuous way--it's off to the friendly skies.

This fits in with his general attitude about Washington--for Bush, Washington is the same thing as Yale. He desperately wanted to be a big cheese at Yale, and no one paid him much attention--they knew who he was and what he was and weren't all that much impressed with him. Same in Washington. So, what does he do? He's on endless trips away from Washington for stage-managed events where the crowds are hand-picked "ordinary" people in the "heartland" who are there for the purpose of adoring him and his policies.

There's a psychological reason for his dependency on Air Force One that wasn't present in Clinton. Bush wants to be president, but he doesn't want to be in Washington doing the job of president. That, in part, accounts for the large amount of travel, too.

[tjdee]

5. What's with his expression? Don't like it, quit motherfucker!

It galls me to see this sourpuss look he's had lately. All this "work" he has to do, getting his behind on a plane and looking interested, flying for free and getting paid a measly 400K a year must be getting to him.

Too bad!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Operating costs: $56,800 per hour (USA Today 2004)

[MidwestTransplant]

8. Exactly. Fuel is only a small fraction of the cost.

[Stephanie]

9. Incredible

[ClintonTyree]

23. That's just the airplane.........

then there's salaries of the Secret Service, advance people, transporting the presidential limo and other support vehicles, added security at his destination, hotel rooms and meals for those support poeple........and that's just scratching the surface of the cost of bush's photo-ops. All on the taxpayer's dime. Nice work, if you can steal it! :eyes:

[VPStoltz]

28. And we pay for this????

For the 2002 midterms, The Chimp made something like 17 trips to S. Dakota (or was it N. ) to help unseat Daschle. I always felt that the party of the sitting president should pay for use of AF1 for campaign trips.

[Catherine Vincent]

10. It's just one of the perks of being president.

Even if you were selected by the supremes.

[Benhurst]

11. He should be provided with a vintage Piper Cub. He could

fly it himself, with Karen Hughes on-board as stewardess to pass around the booze and cocaine.

[kcass1954]

18. He wouldn't do it - he's probably heard the warnings about flying...

in small planes. He's just too stupid to realize that it only applies to the opposition.

[blue4barb]

13. Is Laura with * on these photo-ops? If not, it keeps him away from her

so he can partake his fav beverages without her nagging. Yes, at the expense of the taxpayers, of course.

It would be hard work to keep away from her at the WH.

[OhioChick]

14. He should be riding his bike.........more. n/t

[daninthemoon]

15. Meanwhile, * asks us to drive less to conserve gas

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/27/business/27econ-new.html

To Conserve Gas, President Calls for Less Driving

By DAVID LEONHARDT, JAD MOUAWAD and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: September 27, 2005
With fears mounting that high energy costs will crimp economic growth, President Bush called on Americans yesterday to conserve gasoline by driving less. He also issued a directive for all federal agencies to cut their own energy use and to encourage employees to use public transportation.

President Bush said Monday that the government is prepared to again tap into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.


Forum: Energy
"We can all pitch in," Mr. Bush said. "People just need to recognize that the storms have caused disruption," he added, and that if Americans are able to avoid going "on a trip that's not essential, that would be helpful."

Mr. Bush promised to dip further into the government's petroleum reserve, if necessary, and to continue relaxing environmental and transportation rules in an effort to get more gasoline flowing.

[cloud_chaser1]

16. AND BUSH

used AF-1 as his personal SUV.

[BiggJawn]

17. 17,000 Gallons per HOUR...

If that was Regular, one HOUR would keep me going for TWENTY YEARS!!!
:wow:

Stay the fuck in DC and DO SOME WORK, Il Douche!

So he flies out to the Springs, to "see how the military response is going".

Don't they have a Situation Room that's at most, a 10-minute Escalade ride away from his playpen?

[leftchick]

19. It is NOT JUST AF1!!!! It is Several Aircraft To Carry His "Entourage"

I believe TahitiNut pointed this out in another thread..

a couple of C-130s to carry the SUVs and SS detail, Marine 1 and other choppers for staff and then there is the Military detail to protect his ass from the air. How many USAIRFORCE jets are accompanying this sheik-like entourage??

That is a LOT more fucking fuel than wolfie showed on CNN just now. And he said 50,000 bucks is a drop in the bucket for AF1 compared to Katrina clean up. What an ass....

Truly Sick.. :puke:

[A HERETIC I AM]

37. That is VERY true....

And they typically ARE NOT C-130'S!!!
here is a C-130 Hercules, a 4 engined (Turboprop) Cargo plane


What they use more often are the newer C-17's, a 4 engined (Jet) Cargo plane.


If i am not mistaken, at least TWO of these accompany AF 1 everywhere it goes to carry, as the above poster says, the motorcade AND Marine One, for which they use 2 different models of Sikorsky Helicopters, The one we see landing at the WHite House, an H-3 (The big one, below) and an H-60

not to mention a detachment for maintenance.

[Skidmore]

20. That's two months pay for my husband and me with

combined paychecks. Actually, slightly more than 2 months of pay for one hour of fuel. Shoot, a 3 hour flight could support us for half a year.

[ktowntennesseedem]

22. Kick! That's the kind of math the average American can understand.

Keep pointing out that everytime he hops on AF1, there goes X no. of months of my salary or your salary up in smoke. Then lets see if they think all those base-rallying, ass-covering, photo-ops are necessary.

[mwooldri]

21. Bush needs to charter a commercial airline...

... if he's really serious about cutting costs, and supporting the US airline industry.

It's good enough for Queen Elizabeth. It's good enough for the Pope. Surely, chartering a 747 would manage to reduce costs? Does he really need that motorcade?

Mark.

[BulletproofLandshark]

24. But Bill's supposed $200 haircut was the real crime!

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[liberal N proud]

25. The government only pays $1.57/gallon

That would put the cost of running that giant at $10.330 at todays average price of $2.69/gallon

And that is only for the fuel.

[medeak]

26. that's nothing.. we had hundreds of ATV's crossing the hills

when Cheney came to visit..

wonder what the cost of that was to fly them all in?

[Mich Otter]

27. The Republicans still owe us over $40 million dollars....

from their use of public monies to persecute Bill Clinton.

[karlrschneider]

29. A short related thread here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=4905085&mesg_id=4905085

[JohnnyRingo]

31. I think that's a low estimate....

I bet his motorcade of SUVs costs $10,000 an hour including security.

[Oeditpus Rex]

32. $6,029 per hour for fuel??

That's almost as big as the AF1 bar tab.

[Stephanie]

33. lol!

Thanks for some perspective!

[Alva Goldbook]

34. Finding an alternative energy source...that's free.

I read somewhere that Bush was asking Americans to conserve gasoline. Of course preztel boy used the opportunity to push Nuke power again. But, sadly, there's been an available alternative fuel sourse available for running any car for the last few decades...and it's practically free.

check this out:

http://nitwitplanet.blogspot.com/2005/09/do-we-really-need-to-conserve-gas.html

[texpatriot2004]

35. I thought he said we should all be "conservers" n/t

[oneold1-4u]

36. How does it feel?

To not have a vehicle, fuel, or the money to help move out of danger's path, while the political powers can spend more in one hour (peoples money)than many thousands receive for work or SS in a whole year! One hour, of Air Force 1, just warming up, could have fueled hundreds of busses sent to the southern states to help people leave!
Why is it that the rich and powerful have absolutely no comprehension of the truth?
When the people understand the truth, that they (politicians) don't give a damn as long as the taxes keep pouring in and it costs them no personal expense or discomfort perhaps they too won't give a damn about the politicians and put them out!