Came across an item this morning on the Drudge Report, reprinted from The Washington Post. It was the title that caught my eye: "Panetta regrets expense of his weekend trips to California home, says he's looking for savings."
Now, I have nothing against Leon Panetta, in fact I know very little about him at all. So the reason the article piqued my interest wasn't anything about personally, but was simply another example of the uncaring, ill-advised and elitist attitudes of the current administration whose whole approach is to simply tax and spend taxpayer's money with no compunction whatsoever.
In that regard, the Associated Press apparently reported in detail earlier this month that the costs of the 27 round-trip flights home Panetta has taken since he became Pentagon chief last July have cost the government (taxpayers) as much as $860,000. That's because he's required to travel on military aircraft so he can remain in constant, secure contact with the White House and other top civilian and military leaders. They also report that he routinely works, makes phone calls and, when necessary, travels a short distance for secure video conferences while he is at home at his family’s walnut farm.
His travel bill is calculated according to reimbursement formulas dictated by longstanding federal policies using what a full-fare coach trip would cost. And the Pentagon says it costs about $3,200 per flight hour to operate the small plane he usually uses for the 10-hour round trip. So far, he's reimbursed the Treasury about $17,000 for the travel, based on a government formula, or about $630 per round trip.
So here I think we have another example of national leadership that continually acts either without thinking at all, or worse without worry about anything but themselves. Because frivolously throwing almost a million dollars away on a closely-tied politico's commutation indicates that cronyism is far more important to them than is prudent, cost-effective, management of taxpayer's forced contributions.
I say that because although I haven't done any homework, I have to believe there are plenty of qualified people for the defense secretary's job that either actually reside in D.C. or would gladly sacrifice frequent weekend trips home to pick walnuts.
And although many out there might think I'm simply nit-picking by bringing this subject up at all, I think it makes an extremely important point about "leaders" who've already run up almost $16 trillion in taxpayer's debt without caring a whit.
That's for today folks.
Adios
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