Complaining about Cost and supplies for Bush's trip to the UK

Lameduck President's Continuing Globetrotting Forays

Latest Trip Pegged at $50 Million --

Most Expensive Presidential Trip Ever

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/907935/posts

Read the book "Dereliction of Duty" for a good roundup of this.

Lots of links here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/907935/posts?page=15#15

http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/releases/1998/travel3.htm

http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/releases/1999/eb1092199.htm

http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/releases/1998/travel2-jt.htm

http://www.senate.gov/~rpc/releases/1998/travel.htm

September 22, 1999

Africa, Chile, China. . . Next Outer Mongolia?

Three Trips, Eight Countries, 2,400 People

-- and a $60 Million Pentagon Tab
Any viewer of the evening news could easily see that President Clinton sharply increased his travels out of town last year. But only now has the cost and scale of some of these trips been calculated. In the course of just three of his out-of-country excursions during 1998, President Clinton spent $72.1 million of the taxpayers' money to bring 2,401 people with him to eight countries (six in Africa plus Chile and China), report General Accounting Office (GAO) accountants after a one-year investigation.

These 2,401 people plus the President and lots of equipment and supplies were carried to and fro during the course of 297 Air Force missions, many of which involved several flights, often by gigantic C-5 cargo aircraft or by specialized military VIP jets, says the GAO in its draft study, "Presidential Travel: Costs and Accounting for the President's 1998 Trips to Africa, Chile, and China," provided to the Senators who last year requested it. (Note that the GAO used the term "mission" as a flight or flights on a military plane that included one or more flight segments, such as a round- trip flight to a foreign destination and a return flight to home base, or as a flight plan that included multiple flight segments.)

The defense budget paid for 84 percent, or $60.5 million, of the total cost of these trips, specifically from the Operation and Maintenance account (which pays for the day-to-day operations of our military forces, including equipment maintenance and support, purchase of spare parts, and training), and from the Transportation Working Capital Fund.

The GAO study relied upon data provided by the Pentagon and only includes the incremental cost of each trip, ignoring, for example, routine military payroll. In addition, the report only analyzes three overseas trips -- the President traveled to nine other countries in 1998 alone.

Because of the President's travels throughout Africa, the Air Force was forced to cancel or refuse 26 air missions that it would have flown in its regular duties, and postponed 30 others, according to a press report [St. Louis Post Dispatch, 1/10/99].

Normally, the Air Force's cargo aircraft are used to ferry Army, Navy, and Air Force troops and supplies around the world. It's a small wonder there is some resentment and bitterness over what some considered a wasteful use of military aircraft and crews to transport unneeded people and excess baggage, as reflected in this statement by one Air Force officer: "It's excessive. And there's no accountability." [St. Louis Post Dispatch, 1/10/99].

Slashing the Pentagon's Budget, While Spending it on Himself

While President Clinton has been spending defense dollars for his own travels, he has slashed the Pentagon's budget every year he has been in office. When he became President, the defense budget was some $300 billion. By 1997, that number had fallen to $254 billion (or $224.7 billion, holding inflation constant), an incredible 25-percent drop in real economic terms, and this in an era where federal spending otherwise grew by some 16 percent.

This year, the President promised to increase defense spending by $110 billion over six years, with a $12 billion bump-up in 1999 alone. Even this figure falls far short of the recommendations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) who, in 1998 (as Clinton and his entourage racked up over 5,400 air hours on three trips), testified as to a need for $148 billion over six years, with an increase of $17.5 billion this year alone. And their $17.5 billion requirement excluded the $2.5 billion needed for pay raises and enhanced benefits, bringing the total 1999 requirement to $20 billion. Overall, the President's defense spending plan was at least $40.5 billion less over six years -- and $8 billion less in 1999 -- than the levels outlined by the Joint Chiefs in 1998.

During his presidency, Clinton has used U.S. forces abroad 45 times. Even now, at least 200 U.S. troops are bound for East Timor. These deployments are in addition to the 6,900 U.S. troops in Bosnia, 7,000 troops in Kosovo, and some 20,000 troops -- mostly sailors and Marines -- involved in Southwest Asia around Iraq, enforcing maritime sanctions in the Arabian Sea and two no-fly zones over Iraq. These operations have strained U.S. troop readiness and quality of life: operational tempo (OPTEMPO -- the work pace for maintenance, repairs and combat training) has increased, keeping soldiers away from their families for long periods of time, equipment is being cannibalized, and training is suffering.

None of this bothers this President -- whose upcoming travel plans may include Antarctica. His staff later acknowledged such a trip would impose significant "logistical problems" (that is, that the lack of infrastructure in Antarctica would create even greater -- and more costly -- logistical requirements than those posed by the trip to Africa). This has not deterred President Clinton; press reports claim he is still considering an Antarctica escape. He has also voiced a desire to see Vietnam -- despite his refusal to accept a previous Air Force offer to fly him there for free some 30 years ago.

How Do These Trips Stack Up?...

The data provided by the GAO report, which estimates the costs of President Clinton's 1998 trips to Africa, Chile and China, allows for some interesting comparisons:

The accounting system used by the Pentagon to estimate flight costs gives the President the same rate as that charged for sending soldiers sent to Bosnia, Haiti, and East Timor. According to press reports, the Pentagon usually charges non-defense customers roughly 33 percent extra. [St. Louis Post Dispatch, 1/10/99]

Under these less generous calculations, airlift for Clinton's trips to China, Africa, and Chile would have cost roughly $70 million, bringing the Pentagon's total cost to approximately $77 million. Adding back in the non-defense costs of the trips, the grand total of taxpayers money spent on the three trips would reach just over $90 million.

Clinton also traveled to nine other countries in 1998 alone (since 1993, he's visited 59 different countries, many of them more than one time), but the cost of those trips has not been calculated.

The total cost to the Pentagon of the President's three trips -- $60.5 million -- could buy some 3,000 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) smart bombs. These are the bombs the U.S. used so widely, and ran low on, during the war in Kosovo.

904 members of the Pentagon accompanied the President to Africa, a number equivalent to one U.S. Army battalion.

While one of the objectives of the President's trip to Africa was "to promote U.S. investment, trade, and economic growth" in that country, the Commerce and Treasury Departments only sent three people each, while the Treasury and U.S. Trade Representative each were represented by only one person. Meanwhile, the White House brought along over 200 people and the U.S. Information Agency brought over 100 travelers.
And, How Was The Military Used?

The number of missions flown (excluding helicopter missions): Africa -- 148; Chile -- 36; China -- 47.

The number of military flight hours for each trip: Africa -- 3,508; Chile -- 716; China -- 1,017.

5 different types of passenger aircraft; 4 different types of strategic-lift aircraft; and 2 different types of aerial refueling aircraft were flown.

5 different types of helicopters were used to support the Africa trip; 2 different types of helicopters were used for the Chile trip.

Clinton Set to Double Presidential Travel Record
He's Already Set Records for Trips, Days, and Pace of Overseas Travel

Many people have wondered: What will be President Clinton's legacy? How will history remember him? Considering his foreign travel record, Clinton is likely to be better remembered by geography than by history. He already holds every presidential record for international travel -- despite being not yet midway through his second term. Likely, by year's end he (in six years) will have fully doubled the presidential foreign travel record.

When Bill Clinton was running for office in 1992, he attacked President Bush for being the "foreign policy president," but since then, President Clinton has become the "foreign travel president" [see attached graph, Clinton's International Travel]. Even using a conservative count:

Clinton holds the record for:

Foreign trips by a U.S. president: 32

Days abroad: 154

Rate of foreign travel: 27 days per year
It is not as though America is free from problems at home. We face an agricultural crisis, and the need to reform Social Security, Medicare, and our tax system. Too bad that while there are important issues at home, we have a President who is too often not.

Clinton's Bulging Passport: Record-breaking 32 Trips
In 1992 then-candidate Clinton excoriated President Bush for taking 25 trips to 60 countries during his tenure, sanctimoniously stating, "It is time for us to have a president who cares more about Littleton, New Hampshire than about Liechtenstein: more about Manchester than Micronesia." Once in office, however, Clinton seemed intent on breaking the Bush record, and did so with his 27th trip abroad (according to the 11/21/97 Christian Science Monitor) to Canada on November 22, 1997.

To date, President Clinton has taken a record-breaking 32 trips to 78 countries (including 51 different ones) with trips to South Korea, Japan, and Malaysia planned for later this year. Evidently, Clinton's solution to President Bush's travel was to visit not only Littleton, New Hampshire, but Liechtenstein -- and everywhere else in between.

Clinton Shatters Presidential Foreign Travel Record: 154 Days

In just this year's foreign travel so far, President Clinton has visited 11 countries and spent 41 days overseas. He has chalked up a grand total of 154 days of foreign travel. And this is a conservative estimate (we use as our source White House figures for 1993-97, and for 1998, for which White House figures are not yet available, we rely on press reports; we note that press reports from the 1993-1997 time period we accumulated account for 8 more days abroad than did the White House).

How does this stack up with the foreign travel of other presidents? It establishes another Clinton record [see graph, U.S. Presidents' International Travel]. President Clinton's foreign travel is likely by year's end to double that of President Bush, the same president he attacked for traveling abroad too much.

Record-breaking 26.8 Days per Year Exceeds Bush Travel by 25 Percent

Comparing the travel of one president to another, as above, obviously covers different time-frames, but even looking at days of travel per year, Clinton shatters the record. President Bush averaged 21.5 international travel days per year, compared to 26.8 for Clinton [see graph, Average Days of International Travel Per Year].

Aesop's fable about the tortoise and the hare examines the two elements of a race: consistency and speed. In the case of President Clinton and foreign travel, he's both tortoise and hare -- traveling abroad at a consistently accelerating pace. In 1993-94 and 1995-96, Clinton's 41 days and 39 days abroad put him roughly on President Bush's pace. Then, in 1997-98, Clinton's 74 days (to date) puts him at almost double Bush's pace. Clinton's 27 day-a-year travel pace is 25 percent greater than was Bush's.

What Compares to the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the Gulf War?
Any way you count it -- trips, days, or pace -- President Clinton holds the record for presidential foreign travel. White House spin-doctors might claim that this was in response to pressing international events. Compare the events then with those of the Bush presidency: during the Bush Administration's first two years, the Soviet Union and communism in Europe collapsed -- the Berlin Wall fell on November 11, 1989; during the Bush Administration's last two years, the Persian Gulf War was planned, fought, and won -- Desert Storm began on January 6, 1991.

These two international events rank among the most significant of the last generation, if not the last half-century. Compared to the historic events that marked the Bush presidency, what foreign policy events have occurred to justify President Clinton's record-breaking foreign travel?

Clinton's Presidency: More Postcards than Proposals
If Bill Clinton needed a passport to handle the agricultural crisis, had to pack a bag to address Social Security, needed a plane ticket to cut taxes, or had to cross time zones to deal with managed care reform, maybe he would have tackled these tasks.

If foreign trips were home runs, Bill Clinton would be Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa rolled into one . . . and perhaps Ruth and Mantle as well.

When the year is done, but the important business of America isn't, it should be no wonder that President Clinton could not work on all the important issues at home: He was hardly here.

Yup, Good book.

I like the "Hillary's Football" chapter..........

HC..."TURN THIS HELICOPTER(Marine 1) AROUND I LEFT MY SUNGLASSES IN THE LIMO!"

Good topic. I was always fascinated at Clinton during Monicagate when he took off for so many distant lands, and during the summer he and his two "lovelies" would take extensive vacations at expensive resort states or foreign countries.

Yet when George Bush Jr. takes off for a month in Texas, fur flies.

Are Democratic people not as "evolved"? I am serious in that they behave like such children, gossiping and whining like bereft "jilted lovers."

Recalling Watergate, I remember one "escape" Clinton made to the chopper running along with Buddy while he had the Marine Band playing some hefty melodies to drown out the press galley questions. The stuff of comedy except he was the quasi-President. An office of which he made a mockery.

What about Clinton's India tour with his wife and daughter. That cost a pretty penny I'm sure.

Apples and oranges. Bush's trip is a shrewd political venture seeking to cement relations with an ally. Willie's trips, all of them, were just vacation trips for Chelsea (although, some were probably to secretly move military secrets to enemies or import cash or "stuff" for his personal use). Every Christmas and Summer break, Willie took Chelsea on some wonderous trip to an exotic place all on the tax payers' nickel. The vacation trip to China cost almost 100 million dollars, IIRC.

I have always referred to the Clinton "presidency" as Bill's Excellent Adventure. That is what it amounted to.

Clinton went to China

Worse - how much did Clinton spend on the trip to Africa??