The heat on Secretary Tom Price is intensifying after revelations the Health and Human Services chief wasted more than $400,000 of taxpayer money jet-setting around the country in private jets. The high-flying Price made stops in Aspen to scheme an ACA repeal with representatives of Koch brothers. One flight was to a conference in San Diego, where he gave a lecture on wasteful government spending. You can’t make that up! He also used the ultra-expensive government planes to speak at events hosted by old friends, which coincidentally happened in places where his family owns vacation property. It must have been quite a scene for Mr. Big Time to arrive to waiting friends and family in a private jet with the seal of the United States on the side. Quite a scene, indeed.
After Trump publicly said he "we'll see" when asked if he would fire Price, adding he is “not happy about it, will look into it" and House Democrats began calling for Price to resign, the HHS chief is trying to smooth things over by writing a personal check to cover the enormous costs of the flights. Except he’s only covering the cost of his one seat on all those flights. Even though he chartered the entire plane, on our taxpaying bill, he’s only reimbursing approximately 12.9 percent of the total cost:
Secretary Fancy Pants isn’t only using high-priced government jets to buzz around the country. He has also been pushing to reopen the executive dining room.
From BuzzFeed:
"They're making a ton of cuts, the world is falling apart, and Price is on private planes and wants to open an executive dining room," said one of the sources with knowledge of the request, who served on the Trump campaign and transition team.
The source who said Price wanted White House aides to mention his interest in the executive dining room to the president said Price is hurting the administration.
"He's such a fucking hypocrite," said the source, who has advised Trump in the past. "We were always the people slamming Obama and his staff for doing stuff like this."
GOP strategist Matt Mackowiak said Price's jet travel and interest in an executive dining room, when informed of it, appeared "tone deaf."