September 22, 2017

Tom Price Missed a Meeting Because of a Flight Delay Once

The Gulfstream G280 is an aircraft so powerful and aerodynamic it redefines the performance and capabilities of super-midsize business aircraft. According to Gulfstream, anyway. It's also perfect for busy cabinet officials.Russian Look via ZUMA

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Why does HHS Secretary Tom Price charter private flights for his official travel? The Washington Post has the story:

After Tom Price was sworn in as health and human services secretary, the Georgia Republican faced an inconvenience known to millions of Americans: His flight was delayed, an aide said, and he was forced to spend hours at an airport. The delay left Price a no-show at an early public appearance his office helped plan.

A flight delay!?! Color me convinced! In fact, I recommend that the federal government purchase a fleet of planes especially for use by cabinet secretaries. They are far too important to be subject to the indignity of mingling with the little people and suffering the vagaries of commercial airline travel.

Don’t worry, though. The next time a Democrat takes office we can sell off the fleet, since it would then be an obvious waste of money by Beltway elites who care nothing about how they spend the hard-earned money of honest taxpayers.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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