Anonymous wrote:I hope chief of staff Kelly is getting these details to Trump. The pj to see his son was so blatant. As Donald would say, "fire his %$#."

Asked about private travel by Price, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin’s alleged misuse of government planes, Trump alternately disputed the details and said he didn’t “know much about it. I haven’t heard about it.”

Anonymous wrote:Where are all the fiscal conservatives?
http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/26/tom-price-private-jets-243176

Richard Painter, who served as top ethics officer for President George W. Bush, questioned why Price needed to travel on Friday afternoon to St. Simons Island when his speech wasn’t until Sunday.

“One night is appropriate for a speech in Georgia, not two nights,” Painter said, given that Price was traveling around the East Coast.

The Nashville trip offered even more commercial options. On June 6, Price took a Learjet 55 — a $17,760 round-trip flight, according to a federal contract — that departed from Washington Dulles International Airport at 9:12 a.m. ET and touched down in Nashville at 9:44 a.m. CT.

Two commercial flights that morning followed similar itineraries. An American Airlines plane departed Reagan National Airport at 9:05 a.m. ET and landed in Nashville at 9:39 a.m. CT. A Southwest Airlines flight left Baltimore-Washington International at 9:18 a.m. ET and arrived in Nashville at 9:54 a.m. CT.

Commercial airline tickets with government discounts would have cost between $102 and $333 per person round-trip between the two cities, according to the U.S. General Services Administration.

“In Nashville, Price had lunch with his son, Robert Price, who is a musician in Nashville. It occurred during a nearly three-hour block of Price’s schedule between when Price departed the Dispensary of Hope around 11:30 a.m. CT — “He had to leave for the rest of his Nashville meetings,” said a staff member at the dispensary — and his arrival at the health care summit around 2:15 p.m. CT.

Painter said Price’s trip to Nashville raised multiple ethical concerns. Despite spending nearly $18,000 on a Learjet, Price spent just five-and-a-half hours in the city and with only two official visits on his calendar — an hourlong tour of the dispensary and a 20-minute speech — that bookended his lunch with his son.

“If [Price] flew out there commercial and he had a lunch with his son, no one would bat an eyelid,” Painter said. “But he’s combining all these different ways of stretching it,” Painter added, listing off the expensive charter flight, Price’s personal lunch and choosing to make a speech to a little-known group run by a prominent Republican.

“They’re playing games with the rules,” Painter said.

Richard Painter, who served as top ethics officer for President George W. Bush, questioned why Price needed to travel on Friday afternoon to St. Simons Island when his speech wasn’t until Sunday.

“One night is appropriate for a speech in Georgia, not two nights,” Painter said, given that Price was traveling around the East Coast.

The Nashville trip offered even more commercial options. On June 6, Price took a Learjet 55 — a $17,760 round-trip flight, according to a federal contract — that departed from Washington Dulles International Airport at 9:12 a.m. ET and touched down in Nashville at 9:44 a.m. CT.

Two commercial flights that morning followed similar itineraries. An American Airlines plane departed Reagan National Airport at 9:05 a.m. ET and landed in Nashville at 9:39 a.m. CT. A Southwest Airlines flight left Baltimore-Washington International at 9:18 a.m. ET and arrived in Nashville at 9:54 a.m. CT.

Commercial airline tickets with government discounts would have cost between $102 and $333 per person round-trip between the two cities, according to the U.S. General Services Administration.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price took a government-funded private jet in August to get to St. Simons Island, an exclusive Georgia resort where he and his wife own land, a day and a half before he addressed a group of local doctors at a medical conference that he and his wife have long attended.

The St. Simons Island trip was one of two taxpayer-funded flights on private jets in which Price traveled to places where he owns property, and paired official visits with meetings with longtime colleagues and family members. On June 6, HHS chartered a jet to fly Price to Nashville, Tennessee, where he owns a condominium and where his son resides. Price toured a medicine dispensary and spoke to a local health summit organized by a longtime friend. He also had lunch with his son, an HHS official confirmed.

Anonymous wrote:Lock him up with the rest of the grifters.

Price continued to take charter jets after a POLITICO investigation identified that the HHS secretary had been chartering private planes to conduct official business for months. The cost of his trips this past week was $56,500, according to a federal contract.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What's delicious about this story is it was likely leaked by some lowly GS-7 or GS-9 in the HHS travel office who got fed up with it. Revenge of the rank and file.

And today every one in HHS got an email telling them yo take special government information security training.

So the information on how the Secretary gets from place to place and how much it costs is supposed to be secure?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He needs to pay this back.

He needs to be indicted for whatever charges correspond to the misuse o f government resources (our tax Dollars). What would happen to a normal GS11 who had overspent by 280k on travel in just a few weeks?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Saturday flight to the resort in Colorado was surely unavoidable. I wonder if Mrs. Price was along for the ride.

Do we know total how much he has spent on private jets since he was confirmed?

The Politico article tracked down $300,000 worth. Not sure if that is all of it.