Pelosi's monumental abuse of military aircraft privileges (Updated)
Rick Moran
Doug Ross has been on this story and broke some news yesterday about the millions of dollars - that's right, millions - that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has rung up in travel using military aircraft.
Now we learn from Doug that it appears Pelosi is using military jets to facilitate the personal travel of her children and grandchildren. No member of congress involved, just the junketing of her kids:
Since Nancy Pelosi took over as Speaker in 2006, she's rung up millions in military travel expenses Worse still, she also appears to have requisitioned entire flights for the personal use of her children and grandchildren. That is, unaccompanied by any member of Congress, her kids, in-laws and grandchildren are utilizing entire military passenger jets for their routine travel needs.
Using the documents obtained by Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, I have discovered the following manifests and travel requests.
22-Feb-2007: A military jet is requisitioned for the sole travel needs of the Speaker's son, Paul Jr.
13-Apr-2007: A military jet is utilized for the unaccompanied travel of the Speaker's daughter, son-in-law and grandson.
30-Oct-2008: A military jet is requisitioned for the Speaker's daughter and a son-in-law, Peter Kaufman.to commute between San Francisco and Washington.
Military flights cost between $5-$20 thousand dollars per hour to operate. Pelosi only reimburses the government between $120-$400 per flight. You and I pick up the rest of the tab with our tax dollars.
It's all perfectly legal, of course - or is it? Even if it is, perhaps we should start asking why a politician's children and grandchildren should have their travel subsidized at taxpayer expense?
Update and Clarification:
I received an email from Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch whose FOIA request brought these documents to light.
He informed both Doug Ross and me that documents Judicial Watch received last year "seem to show that the Speaker was on most if not all of the flights in question."
That may be true. But as a commenter points out at Doug's site:
":Even if these were scheduled flights, the individuals are not dependents of the Speaker. While they may be her children, they are grown adults, and do not meet the eligibility requirements of DOD 4515.13-R. Her son and daughter should not be flying on military aircraft at all.
The idea that any of her adult children should be subsidized by the taxpayer for anything is ludicrous. Pelosi's husband owns real estate worth as much as $25 million:
The Pelosi family has a net worth of nearly $12.5 million as of 2008, largely from investments. In addition to their large portfolio of jointly owned San Francisco Bay Area real estate, the couple also owns a vineyard in St. Helena, California, valued between $5 million and $25 million. Pelosi's husband also owns stock, including $1 million in Apple Computer, and is the owner of the California Redwoods of the United Football League. Pelosi continues to be among the richest members of Congress.
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
This one has been pretty much debunked. Most, if not all, of those flights where Pelosi's kids and grand kids traveled without her being present were scheduled military flights. Pelosi's relatives traveled space available. Bush granted Pelosi the same personal use of aircraft that Hastert had. However, she did demand a plane that was capable of flying to CA non-stop.
i am not a Pelosi fan, far from it. Neither was i a Hastert fan. So far as i'm concerned the speaker of the house should be given the keys to a five year old government car and told to do the best they can. However, there is a lot of misinformation out there about Pelosi's travel.
Sorry falcon your wrong. It hasn't been debunked fully. So far she has run up a food and drink tab of over 100K for her flights. Furthermore, she has had jets on standby waiting for her at her whim along with inserting more money to increase the fleet size because her choices weren't available.
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John Adams “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”
Ronald Reagan: 'Everybody that is for abortion has already been born'
"I never said I was worth it. I only said I wouldn't do it for less " William F. Buckley Jr.
So far she has run up a food and drink tab of over 100K for her flights.
That i will readily believe. Congress is a bunch of total deadbeats. When a bunch of congressmen travel out of the US on a junket there is a military guy along who pays for their meals drinks and gifts when the congress perp is unable to pick up the tab: It seems like the criminals in congress seldom take their credit cards along on their junkets.
The white house has a slush find for buying all kinds of stuff that politicians consume or covet while they are traveling out of the country. The slush fund is controlled by the military.
I'm not terribly fond of the idea that we're spending millions to fly the speaker back and forth to his/her district, regardless of what party he/she is in. I haven't seen Hastert's travel itinerary, but, I would bet it doesn't include flying adult family members around. And, over $100K for in-flight meals in two years? Really??? THAT is insane. That little bug-eyed psycho ought to be eating a bag of peanuts like the rest of us...
She should have had the SAME plane Hastert did. And, if she insisted that she absolutely, positively, had to fly non-stop, she should fly commercial.
Location: land of the Lilliputians, In the state of insanity
Posts: 24,185
Falcon
On the news this morning, they were saying an investigation is about to take place. They are going to investigate the use of Air Force planes by Pelosi for personal reasons. As well as using planes to transport family members like grand kids etc. Also, the news said that Pelosi has run up a tab greater than any Speaker of the House, ever. Which includes hundredes of thousands of dollars for food during flights. I hope they nail the hypocrite to the walls. Also
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kaafir mushrik
Unintended consequences and God have one thing in common: Liberals don’t believe in either of them.
Yep, Pelosi is free loading off the taxpayer: No doubt about that. Hope that they hang her out to dry but i doubt that anything drastic will happen. Pelosi is a long time political criminal and congenital liar that nothing sticks to.
Every congress criminal in DC has access to WRGH or Bethesda Naval hospital for all his aches and pains. It's must be nice when a political criminal can vote himself whatever benefit his little heart desires. It's chumps like us who pay for all that stuff. As an Army retiree i am not allowed into Walter Reed hospital for medical care.
Nice perks of the job I guess!
