as usual you dont hear what i'm saying

its not the purchasing of planes that has people upset its the purchasing of more than the department says is needed. no ones arguing for an upgrade to some of the planes but the department in charge of the fleet has repeatedly said and is continuing to stand by their assessment that no more than 2 new planes need to be purchased and the payoff of the lease on 2 others. you have members of congress who have little if any expertise on the issue saying no we want 8.

the article isnt bashing the purchase of planes for govt use, no article has that i've read yet. all the articles are pointing out congress's addition of more planes than whats recommended / requested even in the face of those who asked for them saying these are too many.

and again you fail to realize that yes everyone understands when a govt member flies to somewhere like afghanistan they need to do so securly and safetly but the fact of the matter is anytime someone is flying into afghanistan odds are they are flying on a strictly military transport and not one of these gulfstreams. as for other european countries then these are used but the point still stands at this time in the nations problems we dont need to start replacing an entire fleet when the department in charge says just 2 new ones are needed.

the president has his own plane, as well as the VP ... outside of those two there are few times where multiple foreign trips are made that would require more than 70 planes at once and either Air force 1 or air force 2 wouldnt be used. pelosi has made what 8 foreign trips in her stint as speaker? many members of congress are lucky to make 1 or 2? your argument is that they need these for foreign trips, yea they do but at no time are all 70 planes being used at once. even at half operational readiness you have 35 jets available for use and the US air force definetly operates at above 50%. obviously in a fleet the size of the US air force there are going to be planes grounded at any given time

this comes down to congress thinking they know better than the pentagon on what is needed for planes and wanting the best of the best for their use.

the majority of congress DOES use commercial flights for domestic trips, outside of the top tier of congress such as the speaker.