Nancy Pelosi's Jet Away Extravagance

by Anonymous

As a result of a Judicial Watch filing under the Freedom of Information Act, the USAF released documents detailing House Speaker Pelosi's use of United States Air Force aircraft between March 2009 and June 2010. The data are published in the Judicial Watch Verdict of December 2010, Volume 16, Issue 12.

Several of these flights included Ms. Pelosi's guests, such as grown children, grandchildren, various in-laws, friends and hangers-on. Over 95% of the trips were between the west coast and Washington DC , for what you might call a commute between home and the office.

The democrat shills and useful idiots moved to limit damage from the Judicial Watch verdict with Factcheck.org stating: "The Web site Judicial Watch has made publi c e-mails to and from the Department of Defense regarding Pelosi’s travel requests. The conservative organization claims the e-mails show that Pelosi has made “unreasonable requests for military travel.” These e-mails, however, back up what we were told by Pelosi’s staff and by the Air Force, i.e., that Pelosi did not usually travel on the C-32 and that any family members or other members of Congress she brought with her on flights to her home district were asked to reimburse the cost of a coach ticket. The messages are about smaller planes, not the 757-size jet. Also, most of the e-mails are not about shuttles to and from Pelosi’s home district at all, but are about congressional delegations to other states and countries. Pelosi’s office oversees transportation for these trips for all members of the House, not just the speaker. For a little more detail on the Judicial Watch-released e-mails, see our post on the FactCheck Wire, "Plane False."

The 'truth detection' spin on Pelosi's travel excesses is that 'other's actually made the transportation requests. It is inferred that Judicial Watch is conservative and therefore it's complaint is 'political'. Passengers were asked to reimburse the cost of the filght. Can any of this be claimed without laughing? FactCheck's response provides nothing more than subjective rhetoric along with semantics falsifying the size of the plane used, what the intent of the trip was and who else came along. None of Factcheck's refutation concerns itself with the necessity or frequency of the trips, the cost to the nation's taxpayers or the 'party' atmosphere that was mainifest. It's not within  the Speaker's purview to provide free shuttle service for members of Congress and their entourage.

Here are the main highlights revealed by the USAF. Keep in mind that all the data below relate to United States Air Force aircraft used by one woman over a sixteen month period.

Total Trips were 85 over a 68 week period; 1.25 trips per week..

Total mileage was 206,264 or 2724 miles per trip

Flying time was 428.6 hours or 5 hours per trip.

Cost to the taxpayer was $2,100, 744 based on an average of $27, 715 per trip.

Evidence generally speaks for itself, and in Ms. Pelosi's case it speaks the language of abuse and (evidently) a serious familial drinking problem, for in a single year she and her spawn drank an amount in excess of the net income of the average employed American! When she said, "... If the stimulus doesn't pass, five hundred million people might lose their jobs...", I thought she was unintentionally revealing her ignorance. I'm now more inclined to think she was pickled.