:faint:

 

tark i can see you have zero knowledge of how the US government fleet operates, where the budget comes from and who can and cant use the planes and for what functions.

the air force operates and maintains all govt jets, they asked for 2 to replace part of their fleet / upgrade ... congress told them they needed 8. now you tell me ... who would know better about what the needs of the air force are? the air force or a bunch of overpaid dicks?

yea there may be alot of legislators but 90% of them never leave the country and most of them attempt to use govt jets as personal vehicles to travel around the US. pelosi herself is notorious for requesting jet usage on a regular basis and she rarely leaves the country

the fact of the matter is at a time when the economy is the worst its been in 80 years you have the govt spending half a billion dollars on jets for their personal use when the department that operates, maintains and repairs these jets saying only 2 are necessary.

the air force is repeatedly arguing the fact that 8 isnt necessary, but legislators dont agree and its not like some military tech to protect our soldiers its VIP custom planes loaded with all the gadgets and more of these means less legislators have to travel with the common citizen.

as of 2008 the air force operates almost 100 business class jets ... so i'm pretty sure that theres no need for 8 when the air force says all they need is 2

 

Quote:

Schedules restriction, flight routes, security, confidentiality, productivity, and social standing (as opposed to other government officials) are all good reasons for the private fleet.

Schedule restriction : what is it they do that is so time demanding? other than telling us they have to hurry to pass bills that don't come into effect for 3 years.

Flight Routes: What about them? oh no! They might have a layover, poor baby.

Security: They aren't the president, Next you will be saying they need SS protection.

confidentiality: yeah, we need to buy them so congress can hide more stuff from us

Productivity: Are you aware that we are talking about the US Congress?

Social Standing: Like i said, they are not royalty, they are just people that got elected. They can fly just like everyone else.

 

tark no one is really arguing they dont need any planes, its merely they are trying to get more than the air force / pentagon says is even needed at a time when we are in serious budget crisis

you have things like social security on the verge of collapse ... instead of buying these extra planes why not write a check for 200 mil and put it in the social security fund ... if we only need 2 or 3 or 4 planes then get the bare minimum for now and use that extra money to take care of truly important issues.

 

I was with Tark until I read this. If they're trying to get more then suggested then yes, they are a bunch of hypocritical dicks.

 

pentagon asked for 2 new ones and to buyout the lease on 2 currently in use on this years budget

the house came back and said no you need to buy 8 ... pentagon is standing by its claim that only 2 new ones are needed.

 

Alot of the posts are saying that they should fly commerical. Now if you really want your politician like McCain to travel to Libya, Kuwait, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan and Iceland by commerical there is something wrong. First off i'm sure there is only a handfull of airlines that will fly to Afghanistan and i'm sure most of then even YOU would feel a little weird about flying.

Second The cost of upkeeping a old plane often surpases the cost of buying new ones. Espacially in the little business jets. The article does say that the fleet is aging and that some of the plane are actually grounded.

I think that there are other way of saving on this subject. I would certainly believe that buying the plane used a bit would save lots of money.

 

I've bit my lip enough. tark get the fuck out you don't even live in this country. these people are not royalty, unless its president or top 10 underneath him, those people are not better then us. coming from Canada you wouldn't understand, you think these people are royalty and they are not..

 

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.

 

where the fuck did i say that? or do you assume that i think they are royalty because i think that the high ranking officials should not travel commercial?