I’m not sure if you had read or heard about it, but on Friday, George H.W. Bush jumped out of a plane strapped onto a U.S. Army soldier and parachuted back to earth for his 85th birthday. This led me to wonder, who paid for him to skydive and use military personnel and aircraft to do so? It’s bad enough that we are still flipping the bill for his Secret Service protection. I say bad enough because shouldn’t there be an age when a former President shouldn’t require protection? I mean, come on, who’s going to go after him? After all, it’s his son who pissed the world off way more than he did. The worst George Bush (the elder) did was pull out of Iraq too soon and puke on a Japanese Prime Minister’s shoes.
Now back to addressing the cost of his little skydive. I’ve looked into tandem skydiving around here. From what I can tell, I should be prepared to part with a couple hundred bucks when I decide to take the “jump out of a perfectly good plane” as my mom puts it. I’m not knocking on the door of the military to use their planes or their men. In this day and age where both locally and federally we are trying to cut our spending, things like former Presidents wanting to celebrate their birthdays in a big way, should not be paid for by the American taxpayer. We already flip the bill for State Dinners that are attended by celebrities (and not too many of us common folk). We also pay for the upkeep of the President’s lodging in both D.C. and at Camp David. Hell, we also pay for the staff that provides the service to the President at both locations. We pay for the President’s transportation while he is in office and we flip the bill for his rather high pension.
According to the Congressional Research Service, George W. Bush left office with $201,300 plus an office allowance as well as other benefits that make his retirement pretty sweet, reaching about $1,000,000 per year. Don’t forget, you and I are working to provide the idiot a very cushy retirement.
Apparently, George H.W. Bush has plans for skydiving on this 90th birthday. He can damn well do it on his own dollar and have a few civilians take him up instead. If I’m willing to pay for my own little experience, he sure as shit can afford flipping the bill for himself as well.
Filed under: Droppings, fucked up Tagged: | George H.W. Bush, skydiving, tax dollars
I am so glad someone is paying attention. I didn’t think anything about his skydiving or the fact that you and I footed the bill for it. What bullshit.
Although I can imagine someone angry at Junior going after Daddy, I’m pretty sure BushCo can afford their own security detail.
I am so sick of those with money talking about belt tightening, because they always seem to mean MY belt!
I concur, I saw it on HLN but didn’t really think much of it until your reminder that someone’s paying for it…like us.
Agreed! On the day of the jump, my dad and I were talking about how stupid and wasteful it was, and my dad said, “Hmmph, he didn’t even jump, he was strapped to someone else and they jumped”.
Did you see the awful comment that shrub made to the media afterwards? What an utter lack of decorum. It’s like we had a 12 year old as president who liked poop and fart jokes. Charming.
I remember when he did this on his 75th b.day, and I loved what Barbara Bush said: “I just don’t understand why anyone would jump out of a perfectly good airplane.”
What? We paid? Thought it was kinda cool until I realized that!!!
The Bush’s have a lot of money, not to mention unloading George W on us. I think he not only should pay his own way, he should treat a dozen or so ordinary citizens to a jump just to start to make amends.