Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Bush is #1
Remember how the Republicans complained about President Clinton ripping off the taxypayers by flying Air Force One all over the place while campaigning? Well, turns out Bush has set the new record for ripping off the taxpayers via... you guessed it - using Air Force One for campaigning.
Tom at Backup Brain is where I first read this story. According to his short blurb about it, it costs the taxpayers $57,000 per hour to operate Air Force One. But, by law the President is only required to reimburse a fraction of that. And even then only if he doesn't claim that the trip is official business. According to the ABC piece that Tom cites, "But of the more than $203 million Bush has raised for his re-election, less than 1 percent has gone to reimbursing the government for travel costs this year."
So, we have the President who has broken all records raising campaign funds, for a primary season in which he was unopposed by any serious candidate no less, also breaking all records for using Air Force One for campaigning... during that same unopposed primary season, of course.
Rush Detector Correcting the Record AGAIN: Rush Limbaugh already tried to spin this issue back in March.
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Tom at Backup Brain is where I first read this story. According to his short blurb about it, it costs the taxpayers $57,000 per hour to operate Air Force One. But, by law the President is only required to reimburse a fraction of that. And even then only if he doesn't claim that the trip is official business. According to the ABC piece that Tom cites, "But of the more than $203 million Bush has raised for his re-election, less than 1 percent has gone to reimbursing the government for travel costs this year."
So, we have the President who has broken all records raising campaign funds, for a primary season in which he was unopposed by any serious candidate no less, also breaking all records for using Air Force One for campaigning... during that same unopposed primary season, of course.
Rush Detector Correcting the Record AGAIN: Rush Limbaugh already tried to spin this issue back in March.
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