So Is This Where Our Tax Dollars Go?

[Yin]

Source link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080718/pl_nm/security_usa_capsules_dc

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top U.S. Air Force officials sought to spend millions of dollars in counterterrorism funds on "comfort capsules" for military planes used by senior officers and civilian leaders, The Washington Post reported on Friday.


Over the past three years, the service asked to divert $16.2 million in counterterrorism funds to the project, but was twice rebuffed by Congress, the Post reported, citing internal e-mails and budget documents.

The newspaper cited an August 2007 letter to the Pentagon from Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania Democrat, ordering that the money be spent on a "higher priority" need.

The Air Force nonetheless decided last year to take $331,000 from counterterrorism funds to cover a cost overrun in the program that began after the September 11 attacks, the Post said, citing officials it did not identify. A senior officer told the Post in reply to questions that the Air Force would reverse that decision.

Air Force officials said the government needed the new capsules to ensure leaders could talk, work and rest comfortably in the air, the report said.

An Air Force spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

According to the article, Air Force documents spell out how each of the pods is to be "aesthetically pleasing and furnished to reflect the rank of the senior leaders using the capsule," with beds, a couch, a table, a 37-inch flat-screen monitor with stereo speakers, and a full-length mirror.

Construction of what the Air Force initially called the Senior Leader Intransit Comfort Capsules, or SLICC, has begun under a contract paid from general Air Force funds and one of the 18-by-9-foot (5.5-by-2.7 meter) capsules has been partly completed, the Post reported.

The program has been downsized to three capsules from 10, plus four pallets fitted with swiveling leather chairs, known as Senior Leader Intransit Pallets, or SLIP, the newspaper said.

Due to the cutback, the program is now estimated to cost $7.6 million, the Post said.

(Reporting by JoAnne Allen; Editing by Peter Cooney)

And the only thing offered for financial aid was work study. :sarcasm: :rolleyes: I couldn't even get a loan or a grant this semester.

[Xielos]

Not surprising in the least.

[Graphite]

As an employee working for Lockheed Martin on the VH-71, I am offically not allowed to comment.

:shinner:

[Solos]

The US military also spends thosands of dollars on dowsing rods with no proof they actually work (they then test them and throw them away because they don't work). They are idiots what do you expect.

[Dr Jack Wolfe]

You all have been in cargo plane's jump seat right? Used to work for a large next day air firm, we had comfort capsules, they were 6 first class seats that bolted into the front of the plane. Think I'd rather a General or the Secretary of the Air Force have a place he could work and take calls then waste time getting nothing done sitting on a piece of canvas stretched between 2 metal rods.

Get the contractor who had the overruns.

[Graphite]

You all have been in cargo plane's jump seat right? Used to work for a large next day air firm, we had comfort capsules, they were 6 first class seats that bolted into the front of the plane. Think I'd rather a General or the Secretary of the Air Force have a place he could work and take calls then waste time getting nothing done sitting on a piece of canvas stretched between 2 metal rods.

Get the contractor who had the overruns.

Agreed. And unless you have flown mil, I don't think you have the right to complain. Really, this is natural extention of Air Force and Marine One. These are people of authority who need to level that authority. Its more than just "flying first class." Now is it worth the tax payer's $$$? Thats what public debate is for, where I shouldn't comment due to conflict of interest.

[Vendel]

I would be more worried about the Billions and possibly Trillions that are going to be spent on "Global Warming" related efforts.

Or the Trillions that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are going to cost us the taxpayers in the next 30-40 years.

Or on a slighter smaller note. The Billions that we are going to throw at AIDS in Africa.

Shall I go on?

[Nerfed]

You know, everyone is a little at fault here.

Yeah, some added level of comfort should be there for the sake of them being able to work rather than waste in-flight time being miserably uncomfortable like every other grunt.

However, do they need a 37-inch flat screen TV? Why not just a regular cheap picture tube from Walmart? Why stereo speakers? A simple mono speaker is not appropriate for high ranking officials? Couch and a bed? What is it, a motel? Here's an idea: sofa beds. They're not luxuriously comfortable, but they beat sleeping in a hammock plus they're functional in being a couch when they don't need to sleep. Leather swivel chairs? Why leather? There are cheaper and more durable ways to go that can still meet the "aesthetically pleasing" prerequisite.

I think our senior officials are getting too pampered. I don't expect them to bunk down in the same lack of comfort (both physical and aesthetic) the lower rank soldiers have to put up with, but they're still soldiers not favored servants of the palace guard.

[Nerfed]

Also, all the other money our country wastes is wrong too, but that doesn't mean we should overlook smaller wasteful spending. :rolleyes:

[razoras]

Oh crap it's Vendel torpedoing a thread.

[Dr Jack Wolfe]

You know, everyone is a little at fault here.

Yeah, some added level of comfort should be there for the sake of them being able to work rather than waste in-flight time being miserably uncomfortable like every other grunt.

However, do they need a 37-inch flat screen TV? Why not just a regular cheap picture tube from Walmart? Why stereo speakers? A simple mono speaker is not appropriate for high ranking officials? Couch and a bed? What is it, a motel? Here's an idea: sofa beds. They're not luxuriously comfortable, but they beat sleeping in a hammock plus they're functional in being a couch when they don't need to sleep. Leather swivel chairs? Why leather? There are cheaper and more durable ways to go that can still meet the "aesthetically pleasing" prerequisite.

I think our senior officials are getting too pampered. I don't expect them to bunk down in the same lack of comfort (both physical and aesthetic) the lower rank soldiers have to put up with, but they're still soldiers not favored servants of the palace guard.

Don't really know what the 37 inch is for, my bet on a military aircraft it's for video conferencing...or DvDs. I think an office like any on a bus or small business plane is appropriate. I assume they're building these so the VIP can travel without having to fly the G5 as well as the big huge 17 (seventeens are after my time, did they call them AC17s or did they get clever) which may have wasted space to the same location.

Get the contractor.

[Knightward]

Oh crap it's Vendel torpedoing a thread.
This made my night.

[Yin]

Good points all around.

Giving those people a place to work while flying is fine, but for the project to be labeled 'top priority' doesn't make sense. There are a lot of other issues across the nation that need to be addressed and could use that money. Like college tuition for example. Students looking to seek a higher education after high school should not have to turn that option over just because it costs too much. How fair is that? There are students out there who honestly, truly want to experience college and receive that education but cannot due to tuition being phenomenally high. It isn't fair.

[Dr Jack Wolfe]

It's only about 16 million, the defense department has a 400 billion dollar budget, not including the war. I know right? 400 billion, nearly 25% of the budget today, and they've been spending 300-400b since the 70s and before. None of that is ever going to go for college tuition (except maybe West Point). I'd feel better if they got what they paid for instead of having to sneak funds from counter terrorism. By the way, the "War on Terror" line item is about 140 billion in the 08 budget.

Don't get me started on federal funds paying for education, I'm all for the "West Wing" plan of 100% tax breaks for college tuition, and maybe scholarships with the rider of public service attached (we pay for medical school, welcome to the peace corp), but lets keep the Feds away from education.

[Nerfed]

Don't really know what the 37 inch is for, my bet on a military aircraft it's for video conferencing...or DvDs. I think an office like any on a bus or small business plane is appropriate. I assume they're building these so the VIP can travel without having to fly the G5 as well as the big huge 17 (seventeens are after my time, did they call them AC17s or did they get clever) which may have wasted space to the same location.
I get what the 37 inch flat screen is for (or likely for), I'm just saying there's cheaper ways to accomplish that goal... presumably they didn't take the inexpensive route on any aspect, and that's part of the problem. VIPs need special accomodations and treatment, meh? I'll accept that, but it doesn't have to be as luxurious as can be in those accomodations. Cut some corners, make less expensive substitutions... its a portable office/bedroom, not a luxury suite at the Hilton. It can be functional, aesthetically pleasing, and less expensive. I get the feeling though, that the VIPs don't feel special unless they know a boatload of money was spent to make them comfortable. And I don't want to pay for that kind of coddling.

[Dr Jack Wolfe]

I would also think more of the cost is goes into making it modular enough to plug into things like the plane's subsystems, maybe many plane's subsystems.