Presidential Perks - we pay

[dArKeR]

 People ask me "do politicians lie?" The answer is they seldom lie. They just don't always tell the truth. Take presidential air travel. Ask the White House, this one or any previous one, how much it costs the taxpayers when the president flies around the country campaigning on Air Force One. You'll be told the White House reimburses the government the equivalent of one first-class airfare ticket for the president and every other political aide who travels with him. What you won't be told is that most of the hundreds -- hundreds of people who travel with the president are listed as government employees, not campaign aides.

Even if the White House paid the government the price of a first-class ticket for all of them, it would still be a bargain. Why? Well, the next time you fly first class, see if you can get the government to throw in a free helicopter to take you to the airport or get the airline to furnish a cargo plane to fly your car to wherever you visit -- just a few of the perks the president gets for his first-class ticket.

White House officials are never able to compute just how much all of that costs, at least not when they're in the White House. Somehow that does not seem to be a problem, though, when they're out of office. For example, when then-first lady Hillary Clinton was using a government plane to campaign for the Senate, Republicans said it cost about $35,000 an hour to fly the plane and pay for all the people needed to support it. You won't get them to confirm that figure these days.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/08/opinion/schieffer/main604603.shtml

[MessiahRp]

1. That's exactly what I have been saying

for months now!

But Bush has been using every single trip out of the White House to attend campaign fundraisers and even on days where he was supposed to be doing Government related activities... That's where this is supposedto become illegal. Well not in Nazi Germa... er, Bush's America.

Read this from Misleader.org:

http://misleader.org/daily_mislead/read.asp?fn=df01152004.html

Bush Exploits MLK's Grave For Political Fundraiser

On last year's Martin Luther King Day, President Bush eloquently honored the memory of Dr. King, saying "I believe power of his words, the clarity of his vision and the courage of his leadership."1 This year, however, instead of honoring the legacy of Dr. King, President Bush has decided to use Martin Luther King Day as tool to force the federal government to subsidize a fundraising trip for his re-election campaign.

The New York Times reports that the President "hastily planned" a visit to Dr. King's grave, and then will immediately go to "a $2,000-a-person fundraiser in Atlanta."2 Even though Bush may spend the majority of his time hobnobbing with donors at the fundraiser, because he will briefly visit Dr. King's grave, he is allowed to deem the entire trip "official" and then bill taxpayers for portions of the huge cost of hotel rooms, rental cars, security, and travel. And those are no small costs - the Washington Post notes that Air Force One alone costs $57,000 an hour to operate.3

Civil rights leaders are outraged at the blatant exploitation of Dr. King's birthday as a tool to force taxpayers to bankroll a political fundraiser. Rev. Timothy McDonald, an organizer of Atlanta's Martin Luther King Day celebrations said, "It's the epitome of insult. He's really coming here for the fundraiser. The King wreath was an afterthought." Despite Bush's platitudes about Dr. King's legacy, he is so focused on his fundraiser - and so neglectful of the Martin Luther King Day celebrations - that he has done little to prevent his visit's security detail from limiting access to a historic black church where a civil rights symposium will be taking place.

In response to Bush's visit, protestors are marching "with bullhorns, signs and thumping drums, shouting for the president to stay away." They say that on top of Bush using Dr. King's grave as pretext for a fundraiser, his policies have directly insulted Dr. King's memory. As Rev. Raphael Allen said, "His administration has never supported anything to help the poor, education, or children. It's all about isolationism and greed for the upper class. That's not promoting the legacy of Dr. King."