Chump change
Gee it’s almost as if Trump’s people see a job in his administration as an opportunity to milk taxpayers for those sweet luxuries that corrupt rich people enjoy so much.
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price will face an inspector general’s investigation into his reported use of chartered jets for at least two dozen flights in recent months at taxpayer expense.
A spokeswoman for HHS Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson told The Washington Post on Friday that the agency will request records of Price’s travel and review the justification made by Price and his staff for the trips, which reportedly cost taxpayers a combined $300,000.
House Democrats wrote to Levinson, an appointee of President George W. Bush, on Wednesday requesting the investigation. They said the flights appeared to violate federal law designed to make sure executive branch officials use the most economical travel available.
There’s a federal law about that? I guess nobody remembered to give Price the pamphlet.
Price’s office this week sought to justify his use of chartered jets, saying that the secretary’s office evaluates the most effective way for him to travel and finds that it is sometimes necessary to charter planes to allow Price to both manage one of the largest executive branch agencies and stay grounded with voters.
“This is Secretary Price, getting outside of D.C., making sure he is connected with the real American people,” said Charmaine Yoest, his assistant secretary for public affairs.
The real American people are accessible only via chartered jet? Why is that exactly?
On Friday, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform panel called on House Republicans to hold a hearing into Price’s travel and asked Price for details on the number of non-commercial flights that he or other agency officials took, how much they cost and any documents justifying the private-jet travel.
“If these recent reports are accurate, this would be a stunning and hypocritical breach of trust, given that the Trump Administration at the same time is trying to take away healthcare from millions of Americans and is proposing to slash funding at HHS — negatively affecting critical programs to provide early-childhood education, fund Medicare for seniors, and conduct medical research and development,” wrote Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) in his letter to HHS.
Maybe they aren’t the real American people.
I am reliably informed that you can meet real American people flying coach, on Amtrak, on Greyhound, even in traffic on interstates. Drop in a rest stop, Tom. Say hi to someone while you gas up a nice rental compact.
This can’t be a surprise to anyone. These bozos are the recipients of decades of corporate welfare and are working to intensify that. Milking the public teat in the course of their appointments (I can’t call them “jobs” with this performance) is merely the smallest scale part of that, right at home.
But hey, make America great again. Apparently greatness lies in being a banana republic with the plebs worked to death for the sake of their betters. Sell your child’s spare kidney for some cash and buy the $40 Trump hat, peons. And be sure to vote for more of this – can’t let those coastal elites win!
You should read the self-congratulatory missives he likes to send out to everyone employed at HHS. Former secretaries used to send out emails highlighting the work of the department, sometimes singling out specific employees for their work and always thanking everyone for their service.
Price likes to blow his own horn about how awesome he is. It’s literally emetic. I genuinely believe he thinks he is owed this kind of pomp and circumstance, never mind that HHS is horribly dysfunctional since he became SoS and that staffing crises are seriously damaging the work of important federal agencies such as CDC and FDA.
You’d better hope we don’t have a serious pandemic flu this winter. Seriously.
[I predicted a few posts back that the trans activists would have their own account of the clash, and why they were right to attack a 60 year old feminist. Shiv obliges, with a post titled “TERFs aren’t above the Nazi playbook either.” Here is her description of the scuffle: “So I am not even slightly surprised when we can be assaulted at a rally and the footage of a 60 year-old TERF dragging a wisp of a teenager across concrete is held up as evidence of “trans violence.”” Believe it or not, it gets worse from there.]
“making sure he is connected with the real American people,”
Wait; doesn’t Trump do this with Twitter? Certainly cheaper than a jet. Mind you, he also does diplomacy via Twitter and that’s going to bring us an expensive nuclear war, so I guess it’s a wash.
Price is also openly sabotaging Obamacare. The latest is this announcement that the HHS site will be down for “maintainence” for 12 hours every weekend during the open enrollment period.
This is so disgusting and cynical. If Republicans are so sure that Obamacare is going to fail on its own, why do they feel the need to sabotage it? Yes, that’s a rhetorical question.