Well, that didn’t take long. After campaigning against the “waste, fraud, and abuse” of the Bush administration, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi now wants to be cut in on the take.
The woman who five months ago said, “Democrats are committed to a new direction in the way our government does business so taxpayers’ money is handled responsibly,” is dunning the White House to put an Air Force jet at her disposal — reportedly, not only for her use, but for her family’s as well.
Pelosi’s office says this is necessary for security. As the philosophers say: Oh, please. Madame Speaker wants to fly in a government plane for the same reason everyone else does: They represent the utmost convenience.
Government planes take off whenever the principal passenger boards. No one has to wait, shoes in hand, while their belongings are rummaged. The planes are well-appointed with stewards on board who cater to every whim.
But all of this luxury doesn’t come cheap. Hourly operating costs for an Air Force C-32 — the planes that typically carry the vice president, the first lady, and Cabinet officials — are about $15,000 an hour.
So for one of those planes to fly the speaker home to San Francisco, drop her off, and fly back and get her, would cost taxpayers around $300,000 — while round-trip commercial fares start at $233. That doesn’t qualify as “waste and abuse”?
Pelosi’s about-face exemplifies one of the most disgusting aspects of politics. When they are out of power, politicians promise to rein in the other guys’ excess. Once in power, they inevitably want the perks of privilege for themselves.
Recall that George W. Bush promised to reopen Pennsylvania Avenue if elected president in 2000. Not only did he renege on that promise before he’d unpacked his bags; he has since co-opted the land surrounding the White House and renamed it “the President’s Park.”
That’s a significant corruption of American ideals because the White House was built on a main thoroughfare to symbolize democracy. “Kings live in parks,” Thomas Jefferson explained. “Presidents live on avenues.”
Ironically, today’s first family lives more like royalty than royalty. When Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, visited the United States recently, they flew here by commercial airline. The president’s wife and daughters fly on Air Force jets, at exorbitant expense to taxpayers.
Last year Mrs. Bush and her daughters flew a C-37 to Alaska for vacation, a plane ride that cost taxpayers around $350,000. A C-17 cargo plane ferrying vehicles for Mrs. Bush’s motorcade (as if a first lady on vacation needs a motorcade) chalks up roughly the same expense. And how many trips were made by advance teams to make sure the ladies’ pillows were fluffed before their arrival?
There is no telling how many tens of millions of dollars have been spent ferrying Mrs. Bush and her daughters around the world in the past six years while soldiers in Iraq were told there wasn’t enough money to outfit them in ceramic body armor.
That is the sort of waste and abuse many Americans hoped Pelosi & Co. would address — and not only because of the financial costs, but because it desecrates the notion of equality.
Democracy cannot work if the people who make the laws and rule on the laws do not have to live by the laws. When Michael Chertoff became secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, he did not move to Washington immediately.
So on Friday afternoons, a government plane flew him and his Secret Service detail home to Morristown, N.J., and flew back on Monday morning to retrieve them — exempting him from the inconvenience his department inflicts on the rest of the traveling public. Of all people, Chertoff should be subject to the consequences of his own policies.
Americans should not be fooled by the argument that such privilege is essential for security. Government officials are in no more danger on a commercial airplane than they are in any other public venue.
Moreover, if they were truly fearful, they wouldn’t fly around in the conspicuous blue and white government planes emblazoned “United States of America.”
Terrorism has become the all-purpose excuse for the powerful to grab more privilege. If Speaker Pelosi is serious about reining in such abuse, she can start by reining in herself.
Examiner columnist Melanie Scarborough lives in Alexandria.
