White House Scare Force One Photo-Op Cost $329K

I think I just spotted part of Obama’s $100 million in savings. Is there a line item for scaring the mess out of New Yorkers traumatized by 9/11, ’cause I think we can let that go:

President Barack Obama ordered a review of a publicity-photo shoot with one of the planes that serves as Air Force One that cost taxpayers $328,835 and caused a furor in New York City.

Obama said it was a “mistake” that he was not made aware of in advance, and that he’s “furious” about it, which has prompted the media to be very generous about crediting him with “profuse” apologies (apparently, in the Age of Obama, apologies don’t even require the word “sorry”) and make a curious distinction between the “federal government” and the Obama administration, which one suspects would not have been made in the Bush years. (In other news, George W. Bush apologized profusely for the federal government’s inadequate response to Hurricane Katrina, saying he was not informed of possible problems before they happened, and that it was a “mistake” that will “never happen again,” prompting the press to lambaste FEMA’s failures and laud Bush’s attempts to get to the bottom of the problem.) Federal agencies apparently knew the flight would cause panic and yet instructed law enforcement and public officials to keep it a secret. John McCain, whom Rush Limbaugh was inviting to leave the party yesterday, is pushing the administration on the issue:

“The supposed mission represents a fundamentally unsound exercise in military judgment and may have constituted an inappropriate use of Department of Defense resources,” Senator John McCain of Arizona wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Here’s the breakdown of how your tax dollars were spent:

That includes $300,658 for the larger plane, which flew a three-hour mission, and about $28,178 for the F-16 jets, which flew 1.8 hours each, Stein said in an e-mailed statement. The total includes fuel used in flight, fuel used to power ground equipment used to prepare the aircraft, and ground maintenance, Stein said.

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