The Democrats:
. . . Democrats on the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee estimated that costs of Bush's visit could top $1 million. They included delaying the USS Lincoln that was steaming from the Gulf to San Diego, an extra day of air patrols, keeping the crew at sea, presidential security and flying Bush to the ship.The White House response:
Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the House Government Reform Committee's top Democrat, called for General Accounting Office investigators to examine the costs of the event.
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd said of the event: 'I am loath to think of an aircraft carrier being used as an advertising backdrop for a presidential political slogan.'
[White House Spokesman Ari] Fleischer said it was not more expensive for Bush to fly a S-3B Viking jet as opposed to a Marine One helicopter. He said the Viking is $7 more expensive per hour to fly -- $6,559 an hour compared to Marine One at $6,552, but that it took the Viking less time to fly to the carrier.
Even though the ship was close to shore, 'it doesn't mean the ship could have pulled in a day earlier. Imagine what would have happened to families who were waiting to come in the next morning, maybe not even arrived yet into California, if the ship had pulled in early,' said Fleischer.
What I guess I would like to know is the difference between the costs of the President's landing on the USS Lincoln and the costs of the China that Hillary chose when the Clintons occupied the Whitehouse.
attribution: Reuters
Posted by Tiger at May 9, 2003 11:29 AM | TrackBack