SHOT/CHASER: The Price is Wrong Edition

 

Release:  Wednesday, September 20, 2017                                                                                     

 

SHOT/CHASER: The Price is Wrong Edition

 

SHOT: HHS Secretary Tom Price spent an estimated $60,000 on five private jet excursions, breaking precedent set by his predecessors who flew commercial.

 

CHASER: As a Georgia Congressman, Price decried the use of private jets, saying “This is just another example of fiscal irresponsibility run amok in Congress right now.”

 

“Tom Price spent more money on just five trips than the median household income for a Georgia family. This is an affront to the hundreds of thousands of Georgians who will lose health care coverage if Price and Trump get their way and repeal the Affordable Care Act.” – Michael Smith, Communications Director

 

CNBC – Tom Price, who reportedly used costly private jets, once slammed government planes as ‘fiscal irresponsibility run amok’

 

• Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price took five private jets for official business last week at an estimated cost of at least $60,000, according to Politico.
• In 2009, Price slammed House Democrats for authorizing funding for private jets.
• Price has also backed the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the HHS budget.

 

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who reportedly took five separate private jet flights for government business last week, once slammed Congress for authorizing funding for private planes.

Price, a fiscal conservative who has long pledged spending discipline, took the flights at an estimated cost of at least $60,000, according to Politico. The travel included an estimated $25,000 round trip from Washington to nearby Philadelphia.

The two HHS secretaries who served prior to Price took commercial flights while in the continental United States, the news outlet said.

Price had a very different outlook on government spending for private planes while serving as a congressman from Georgia. In a 2009 CNBC interview, he criticized House Democrats for trying to spend $550 million on eight passenger jets.

He said a scaled-back request of $220 million for four jets also went too far.

“I think we’ve made it halfway of where we ought to and that is cut it from eight to four jets,” Price said at the time. “Now we need to cut it from four jets to zero jets. This is just another example of fiscal irresponsibility run amok in Congress right now.”

HHS did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request to comment on this article.

Price’s flights last week cost tens of thousands of dollars more than commercial travel for the same schedule would have cost. He went to Philadelphia for a Q&A session with the CEO of Athenahealth and visited community health centers in both New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, Politico said, citing internal documents.

It is unclear if he took private flights for other official business since joining the Trump administration.

Price also backed an 18 percent HHS budget cut proposed by the Trump administration for fiscal 2018. He was expected to present a plan to overhaul the agency’s structure to the White House this month, Politico reported.