This article appeared in last Sunday's Journal Gazette (7/20). I think this to be a terrible waste of the poor taxpayers' hard-earned money.
Somebody please explain the need for 28 of these over-priced choppers. I would insist that both candidates make their real feelings on this outrageous expenditure known to the American people. I personally wonder if the engines on Air One are ever shut down. That 747 is another so-called perk that I think is overly abused.
Article from Journal Gazette.
Decry Pork, Yet Quiet On New Marine One
John McCain and Barack Obama vow to reform the nation's defense procurement if elected president, yet each is unwilling to take a firm stand against the skyrocketing cost of a plum White House perk: the new Marine One helicopter.
Originally carrying a hefty price tag at $6.1 billion, the fleet of 28 helicopters being built to fly the next president is now projected to cost $11.2 billion.
At $400 million apiece, the helicopters far exceed a prime example McCain uses on the campaign trail to rail against congressional pork-barrel spending, a $230 million "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska. The British have bought the same base model helicopter for $57 million each.
In separate interviews with The Associated Press, the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates pledged to look at the program but stopped short of saying whether it should be canceled. Any review after January would butt up against the first deliveries of the helicopters, slated for 2010.
