Eric Holder wanted to see the third leg of the Triple Crown of horse racing recently, the Belmont Stakes. Taking along his bodyguards, two daughters and their boyfriends.
Holder, family and friends boarded a government owned Gulfstream V and flew to Elmont, NY.
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| Gulfstream V is an all-weather, long-range, high speed aircraft powered by two Rolls-Royce BR 710-A2 turbofan engines with thrust reversers. The aircraft has an executive compartment with accommodations for six passengers and a staff compartment with accommodations for eight passengers. |
The trip cost you, the taxpayer, $14,400. It cost Holder $955. That $955 was the coach airfare for his family and friends. Here is what the government rule (A-126) says about the use of government aircraft and, specifically, reimbursement.
Full coach fare means a coach fare available to the general public between the day that the travel was planned and the day the travel occurred.
That looked like a pretty good deal on airfare, so I decided to check what it would cost me to fly from Washington, DC to JFK Airport (near Elmont, NY) round trip the same day. The lowest discounted airfare I found via Kayak was $401 per person which meant that Holder should have paid $1604 for his daughters and their dates.
Or he could have watched the race on TV and save you, the taxpayer, $13,445. But when you're $17 trillion dollars in debt, what difference, at this point, does it make?
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