Fuzzy Math

Congress Wants Even More Gulfstreams

Many of you are probably familiar with the situation, either currently or at one time in your lives; you're sweating it out, waiting for that next paycheck because the mortgage is due, or your taxes are due, or there is some other payment that must be made. Living paycheck to paycheck is a precarious place. How many of you had the brilliant idea that - strapped for cash - you could save a few thousand dollars by rushing to get a great deal on a new car? Not many, I'd wager.

That's what Congress is effectively trying to do with the purchase of three - oops, make that eight - new Gulfstream jets. In a time of financial suffering for a great portion of the country, and also a time of massive spending and takeovers by the federal government, they now feel like they need to spend an additional $550 million of our money. It is heartening that there is a bipartisan backlash and resistance to the notion, but the proponents' outrageous audacity is still infuriating.

But those proponents have a "valid" reason for their intended purchase; they are trying to save us money! That's right, those fiscally responsible members of Congress claim that the shiney, new jets will be cheaper to operate than the older aircraft currently in the fleet. It makes one wonder when Cash For Clunkers will be offered for older airplanes.

Individuals, particularly those in fiscal distress, would find a different way to cut costs. They would travel less. That is, of course, unless they had someone else's money with which to buy that new car.

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