Pelosi Jet – Fact or Fiction?
By JetAviator7 on Mar 08, 2010 with Comments 3
While Pelosi fights to get Obama’s health care plan through, I got to wondering exactly who here husband was and whether, in fact, they own their own private jet. So far I have not been able to find out whether or not they own one, or part of one, or have a contract with a jet-share company. Whatever the facts I still object to the fact that her crew, Democrats in Congress, have criticized the use of business jets when the automakers flew them to Washington, DC to meet with Congress regarding the automobile company bailouts. This criticism lead to the dismantling of a number of corporate flight departments, and it continues. |
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| Companies are very sensitive about the high visibility that Congress has placed on companies and their use of corporate jets. Partially as a result many companies are getting rid of their flight departments. Sears recently shut down its 64 year old flight department.
But the fact remains that Speaker Pelosi and her family have, in fact, abused the use of military aircraft at our expense. Her son, Paul Pelosi, Jr., is a “green advocate.” He is the president of the San Francisco Environmental Commission, and on September 29, 2008 he was provided a government jet to fly to Washington, DC. While he talks about electric mini-buses and other ways to reduce the carbon footprint, he made a heck of a carbon footprint that day. You can see the official Air Force document for this trip below: DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE SPECIAL ORDER 29 September 2008 Mr. Paul Pelosi, Jr., Son, Speaker Pelosi is authorized to travel on or about 29 Sep 08 by military aircraft from Washington, DC to San Francisco, CA for approximately 1 day, in connection with official business of and by the authority of the 31 USC 1108(g). Travel is authorized by military transportation. Travel is on a reimbursement basis equivalent to coach fare rate of $ 180.00. In another instance, shown below, Mrs. Pelosi’s daughter and her husband used an Air Force jet to fly to Washington, DC for a 1 day excursion, and reimbursed the Air Force $ 264.50 for the use of an aircraft that costs over $ 9,000 an hour to operate! DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE SPECIAL ORDER 30 October 2008 Each of the following are authorized to travel on or about 2 Nov 08 by military aircraft from Washington, DC to San Francisco, CA for approximately 1 day, in connection with official business of and by the authority of the 31 USC 1108(g). Travel is authorized by military transportation. Travel is on a reimbursable basis equivalent to unrestricted coach fare rate of $ 264.50. Ms. Christine Pelosi, Daughter, Speaker Pelosi I don’t know about you, but I would love to fly on a government jet and pay the coach fare for the trip! And some believe the government can save money by running health care? Give me a break! JetAviator7 Arguing with a pilot is like wrestling with a pig in the mud, after a while you begin to think the pig likes it. — Seen on a General Dynamics bulletin board. It was Mark Twain who said, “Never try and teach a pig to sing. It’s a waste of your time, and it annoys the pig.” |
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Filed Under: Aviation
Please stick to aviation, as your partisan political posts are a drag on this blog and are distressingly inaccurate and misleading. Criticism of the automakers private jets wasn’t limited to Democrats. For example, Representative Henry (R-NC) said, “The fact that you flew in on your own private jet at tens of thousands of dollars just for you to make your way to Washington is a bit arrogant just before you ask the taxpayers for money.”
The Speaker of the House is third in line for the presidency, and the policy for the Speaker to travel on military aircraft was put into place after 9/11. Speaker Pelosi flies on whatever aircraft the Air Force has available at Andrews AFB, not exclusively (or even regularly) on the C-32 as was implied on this blog earlier. Family members and other members of Congress are permitted to fly with the Speaker for the cost of a coach ticket. Permission for others to fly with the Speaker is required in writing for every flight, hence the orders you reference here. Family and Congress can fly on these aircraft only when the Speaker is flying; your implication that her family have ordered up military flights for their personal use is flat wrong. Again, all of this has been the policy for almost ten years. My link is is to some further information on the topic.
What, I’m not entitled to my own point of view? Please, I don’t berate your point of view so treat me the same way.
Why are the Speaker’s children and their spouses allowed to use military aircraft for their own business? The truth is they have, and with all this crazy spending in Washington I think we, the people, have a right to question that.
As for the criticism of the corporate jet fleets, you are correct – all of these folks in Congress added to the criticism. Problem is corporate aviation is a vital and useful part of business, and great productivity extenders. It would have been better if they had let these companies go bankrupt and reorganize themselves rather than buy them.
You’re right. It’s your blog and you’re entitled to whatever point of view and postings you want. My mistake for implying otherwise. I only wanted to suggest that, as a reader, I value this blog more for insights on aviation than politics.
As to rather the Speaker’s children and spouse have used military aircraft for personal business… They may not travel on those aircraft unless the Speaker is on board. These are flights that were going to happen rather or not the spouse/children were on board. I, for one, am glad that the Air Force stays out of determining peoples’ intentions beyond rather or not they’ve met the rules of the policy. Who’s job would it be to decide whether the Speaker’s son was flying with her because he is her son versus because he has a political agenda? What criteria would such as person use?