Panetta wants to change, but he needs ideas
Last week, we talked about Leon Panetta and the dilemma in which he finds himself – the fact that the poor fellow lives in California and works in DC and costs the government $32,000 every weekend so he can commute. Chief Tango sends a link to Panetta in the Washington Post who tells Congress that he “regrets” that his trips are so expensive;
Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta said Monday that he regrets that his frequent flights home to California on a military jet have cost taxpayers more than $800,000 since July. He gave no indication, however, that he would end the weekend commutes.
Of course not. Each one of his trips would fund the healthcare of a veteran for life, but he’s made 27 trips this year alone.
“For 40 years that I’ve been in this town, I’ve gone home because my wife and family are there and because, frankly, I think it’s healthy to get out of Washington periodically just to get your mind straight and your perspective straight,” said Panetta, who maintains a residence with his wife, Sylvia, on their walnut farm in Monterey, Calif.
Yeah, walnut farms need constant attention, you know, in case gravity doesn’t make the walnuts fall on the ground, or something.
I sure would have liked to travel home more than once a year when my family was in Panama and I was in Germany, or when my family was in New York and I was in Germany, or when my family was in Vermont and I was in the Middle East, but I couldn’t afford it, and maybe that’s Panetta’s solution.
If he’d only fly home to his f*cking walnut farm when he could afford to pay the $32,000 for his use of military aircraft, he’d make fewer trips home…ya know like the rest of the people on the planet.
Category: Military issues, Veteran Health Care
Poor Panetta, I wish there was some way I could help, I KNOW! I’ll donate my annual base pay to him so he can make a trip home, I mean, I usually go home once every couple of years anyway, I can skip a trip :P.
I had a CG like him once. He would have his PSD drive him to the chow hall, up the sidewalk with lights and sirens, so they could deposit at the DFAC’s front door. Needless to say, he is still a part of our organization’s lore, in the most negative sense.
There are hundreds of thousands of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, and Marines on unaccompanied tours around the world making a hell of a lot less than him who don’t have the ability to fly home for the weekend to “get their mind straight and their perspective straight,” much less on the government dime. When offered the position, he could have very well said sorry, but it’s time to stay home with the family. And we got the added bonus of the CJCS jumping in like a yes man to defend him.
Leaders do hard jobs for the benefit of others. Politicians do the easiest thing that promotes their self interests. We have been lacking leadership for a while. If you really want to piss me off, put a politician in a leadership position. Until the SecDef takes an axe to the senior leadership’s personal spending, he has no credibility when the cuts to equipping, benefits, and personnel come.
This is trickle down management. Arrogant, self centered, inexperienced leader at the top(Mr. O) and then down to the cabinet members(Panetta, et al) then to the czars.The military is worse off today than it was during Carter’s term.
Dear Leon,
Periodically means a few times a year, not every fucking weekend.
I’m wondering if he’s flying home to get laid, or to just get out of the puzzle factory….
whats the difference between panetta and the GSA. taxpayer monies for unofficial business. nothing ever changes in government. panetta should plan a one way ticket to his nut farm.
How much would it have cost to TMO/relocated his family to Northern VA or even MD???? Heck putting him up at Generals Row over at JB-Andrews or Anna-Bolling on the tax payer’s dime would have been cheeper. Allow the boss to really see what the quality of base life is like….
-Ish
I guess this means that combat troops will be able to come home for the weekend to get their minds straight and off work. It’s only fair.
Fly home? Hell, I’d have settled for a couple of free phone calls.
Leon, stay home or stay at work, pick one.
I really don’t have any problem with Panetta going home every weekend, if he can maintain that kind of pace and keep up with his responsibilities at work. How he spends his weekends is up to him.
My complaint is that he needs to pay for those trips, not us. And that goes for whatever security detail he has, too.
PintoNag et al – at the risk of being the skunk at the garden party here, I’ll observe that Panetta is paying for those trips. He’s reimbursing the government the cost of full-fare coach fare – which is what he’d be paying to fly if he were allowed to fly commercial.
By Presidential direction, as SECDEF Panetta is required to fly anywhere he files – whether on personal business or official business – on government aircraft. He didn’t make that decision; the POTUS did. That’s been the case since DoD policy regarding VIP air travel changed in April 2009. Prior to then, DoD policy allowed the SECDEF to travel on commercial aircraft when on personal business. It doesn’t allow the SECDEF to do that any more.
References documenting the above are available at comment 15 to this article:
http://valorguardians.com/blog/?p=29423
If an order/directive/policy is stupid – and IMO, this one is, at least regarding SECDEF travel within CONUS – then the argument shouldn’t be with the person obeying orders. The argument should be with the person giving them.
Hondo–look at the date when the policy took effect. Not very responsible use of our tax dollars, wouldn’t you say?
Also, it’s not like Panetta needs a government salary to make ends meet, as has been noted numerous times.
At least he isn’t running up a $100K bar tab like Frau Pelosi.
It’s simply case of just because we can doesn’t mean we should.
I don’t care if he owns property in each of the states. I also don’t care where his family chooses to live. And I understand that he is required to travel, with appropriate escort, via government aircraft. What I do not and will not accept is that we should pay for the consequences of his choices.
Flying from coast to coast 3 or 4 times each month simply is not reasonable. His family COULD fly to see him in DC each week-end, at their own expense, if they miss him so much or move there.
Getting more than a little sick of all these people living large just because they want to. None of them are that special. They are supposed to be servants of the people.
Jeebus…I feel SO sorry for him. At least TRY to act like you’re sacrificing something….Ummmm…like the the troopers who don’t have the luxury of jetting home every wkend. What a putz.
Something wrong with the math here….. he says he flies home on weekends, and has flown home 27 times this year? Seems to me week 27 would be in July, not April. Leon- move the old lady and kids like normal folks or stay the hell in California. I don’t care if he is reimbursing the government
for first class airfare, if the trips cost $32K each, his paying the government a grand or so a trip is still insulting.
NHSparky: Yeah – 14 April 2009. And I also know who was in charge then.
Far be it from me to defend stupidity. But I don’t fault Panetta here. If he was the Secretary of the Army vice the SECDEF, he could fly home on weekends commercial instead and we wouldn’t be having this conversation (or the criticism for using government aircraft would be 100% fully justified). But here, Panetta’s only following orders from higher. If those orders are stupid but not illegal – and IMO these fall into exactly that category – then the argument is with the one giving the order, not the one following it.