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| September 21, 1999 | |||
Most Funds Raided from U.S. Military Readiness
Excessive Clinton Travel Tab = Taxpayer Abuse[NOTE: For details, see RPC's "Clinton Foreign Travel: Excessive or Abusive??" 9/21/99, and "Three Trips, Eight Countries, 2,400 People -- and a $60 Million Pentagon Tab," 9/22/99.]
Bill Clinton holds the all-time record for presidential foreign travel -- 186 days abroad to 59 different countries since January 1993.
At the request of RPC Chairman Craig and Senators Sessions and Thomas, the General Accounting Office (GAO) examined just three of Clinton's many trips, to Chile, China, and Africa in 1998, and found:
- Chile: $10.5 million cost; 592 people traveled, 109 from White House;
- China: $18.8 million cost; 510 people traveled, 123 from White House; and
- Africa (6 countries): $42.8 million cost; 1,300 people traveled, 205 from White House.
That year alone, Clinton traveled to 17 different countries (but the detailed costs for the other nine are not available).
Even worse, the largest share of Clinton's excessive globetrotting cost came at the expense of American defense readiness:
- $60.5 million of the total $72 million price tag -- that's 84 percent -- for these trips came out of the U.S. defense budget; specifically, the operations and maintenance account (which pays for the day-to-day operations of our military forces, including equipment maintenance and support, purchase of spare parts and training) and the transportation working capital fund.
- But at the same time President Clinton has been running up his travel tab, he has been cutting our defense budget to the bone and using the American military in nonconventional ways.
-- As an example: the $60.5 million spent on Clinton's trips could have purchased 3,000 smart bombs -- the kind we nearly ran out of in Kosovo.
-- It costs $34,400 an hour to fly the president himself.
-- None of these cost figures include the additional cost of providing Clinton's security out-of-country, which GAO was not requested to examine because of its classified nature.
- This $72 million price tag is not even the total cost.
-- These costs also do not include the salaries of military or other personnel.
- The frequency of President Clinton's travel makes it excessive.
- In addition, it is an abuse of the U.S. military and the American taxpayer who picks up the tab.
[Charts detailing Clinton's travel record available from RPC.]
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