‘Private Travel Has Become the Norm — Rather Than the Exception’ for Tom Price
Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price has traveled at least two dozen times in the last four months – not on commercial aircraft – but on private chartered planes at a cost to taxpayers of at least $300,000. Politico reports that many of these trips are to events that are scheduled well in advance, where commercial carriers regularly fly, often departing within minutes of the trips Price has taken.
“The frequency of the trips underscores how private travel has become the norm — rather than the exception — for the Georgia Republican during his tenure atop the federal health agency, which began in February,” Politico notes.Â
A June 6 trip to Nashville cost the taxpayers $17,760. There were four flights that went from DC to Nashville that Price could have taken, allowing him to visit the medication distributor and deliver his afternoon speech on time. The cost of those flights were as low as $202. At that cost, Price could have made that Nashville trip more than 80 times for what taxpayers spent on the one chartered flight.
The Nashville trip was just one of many.
“For example, Price took a Learjet-60 from San Diego to the Aspen Ideas Festival — a glamorous conference at the Colorado resort town — that arrived at 3:33 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, June 24, nearly 19 hours before his scheduled panel. That flight likely cost more than $7,100, according to one charter jet agency estimate.”
And last week, as Politico reported, Price spent $25,000 of the taxpayers’ money on a private chartered 30-seat plane for a trip from DC to Philadelphia that would have taken two-and-a-half hours to drive in a government SUV at a cost of just $46 in gas and tolls. If the Secretary didn’t want to drive, he could have spent $72 on Amtrak, or even $447 to $725 to fly commercially.
Price’s two predecessors in the Obama administration almost never chartered private planes. One did because there was no other means to get to a site in Alaska. Not only did they fly commercial, they flew coach. Private chartered flights were a “non-starter,” staffers for HHS Secretaries Kathleen Sebelius and Sylvia Burwell said.
There are rumblings that Price should be fired for this flagrant abuse of taxpayer monies. It would send a strong message to the nation from Trump that he is “draining the swamp,” even if he is the one who nominated one of its monsters.
Meanwhile, the White House does not appear to be happy with the Health and Human Services Secretary.
“Price’s frequent trips around the country have rankled staff inside the White House, with a senior official saying many trips aren’t related to priorities like Obamacare repeal and other items on the president’s agenda,” Politico reports. “While Price has flown to Maine, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania since last Wednesday, President Donald Trump and Senate Republicans have been frantically rallying support to pass an Obamacare repeal bill by Sept. 30. After that date, the GOP will need 60 Senate votes, not 50, to overturn the 2010 health law.”
Price should never have been confirmed. He lied during his confirmation hearing, and as a GOP Congressman traded stocks in the very companies he was regulating. He also promoted legislation that was financially beneficial to companies whose stock he was trading.Â
Price is reportedly worth $13.6 million.
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