GOODY TWO SHOES: Let Them Eat Steak!: Part III
After the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, the Bush administration wanted to trade in the Marine One presidential helicopters dating back to the 1970s for a new VH-71 model that is “[e]quipped to deflect missile attacks and capable of waging war from the air” and “would fly farther, faster and more safely,” reports The New York Times.
But that was before the subprime mortgage collapse, bank bailouts, a $789 billion “stimulus” bill and a 7.6 percent unemployment rate. And before Obama chastised financial and auto executives for their profligate ways with OPM.
As The Times puts it: “The choice confronting Mr. Obama encapsulates the tension between two imperatives of his nascent presidency, the need to meet the continuing threats of an age of terrorism and the demand for austerity in a period of economic hardship”:
The program’s original $6.1 billion contract has ballooned to $11.2 billion, and the Pentagon notified Congress last month that it was so far over budget that the law required a review. The Obama administration now must determine if the project is essential to national security and if there are alternatives that would cost less. …
“If the office of the presidency is vulnerable, then the country is vulnerable,” said Representative Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania, a Democrat and a retired Navy vice admiral. “However, the nation is crying for accountability, from Wall Street to Congress to Iraq.”
Asked about it in last year’s campaign, Mr. Obama promised to “take a close look” at the program, adding that it was “a lot of money, even in Washington.” The White House had no comment last week, but Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, said Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was rethinking the VH-71 and other projects that were “having execution problems.”
Starting with his lavish $170 million inaugural bash (second item), Obama appears to rather like the pomp and perquisites of power - flying to Denver, where he accepted his party's nomination, on Air Force One to sign the "stimulus" bill exactly four weeks after being inaugurated into office - and The Stiletto is willing to bet that he’ll opt for the spiffy new copters. Besides, if he can sign a bill that will end up costing over a trillion dollars and increase the deficit to 8.3 percent of GDP without his hand trembling, he certainly won’t lose any sleep over spending another $11 billion of our money.
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