Administration officials might have a tough time explaining this one.
A luxury private jet leased by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for use in emergencies has been used instead primarily to shuttle Health and Human Services Secretary [tag]Mike Leavitt[/tag] to dozens of news conferences and meetings, a Journal-Constitution analysis of the aircraft’s flight log shows.
[tag]CDC[/tag] officials said that since January they have needed to use the aircraft to respond to three emergencies and conduct three training exercises. Meanwhile, Leavitt has taken the jet on 19 trips to visit more than 90 cities, his spokeswoman said. Most of Leavitt’s travel was to promote the new Medicare prescription drug plan and to make appearances at state pandemic flu planning meetings.
During two of the CDC’s emergencies, Leavitt was traveling on the Gulfstream III jet, requiring the agency to use another plane.
That last point is of particular interest. The CDC had real emergencies — including one person who contracted anthrax — and wanted to use this jet, but couldn’t because Leavitt was helping to promote [tag]Bush[/tag]’s [tag]Medicare[/tag] [tag]Plan D[/tag] scheme.
[tag]Leavitt[/tag] and [tag]HHS[/tag] have confirmed that the report is accurate, but have insisted that the cabinet secretary had to help oversee the implementation of the Medicare plan, and in some instances, speak with state officials about a potential flu pandemic.
I’ll concede that I’m not an expert in the inner-workings of the HHS agency, but Leavitt is a cabinet secretary surrounded by thousands of employees with offices nationwide. HHS also has telephones, email, and video conferencing. It’s hard to imagine the circumstances that would require him to personally fly around the country, 19 times, on a [tag]private jet[/tag], for several events that certainly appeared to be little more than public relations.
During one ambitious three-day stretch in April, Leavitt used the CDC jet — along with some driving — to make appearances in Louisville, Ky.; Toledo, Dayton, Columbus, and Cleveland, Ohio; Peoria, Ill.; Davenport, Cedar Rapids, and Des Moines, Iowa; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and suburban Minneapolis, before boarding a commercial flight back to Washington, according to the jet’s flight log and Pearson.
At almost all the stops, Leavitt held press events to promote the Medicare drug plan.
“Press events.” Not public-health emergencies, just events intended to promote a controversial public policy that was helping drive the [tag]president[/tag]’s poll numbers down.
Even if Leavitt could make the case that the political travel was absolutely necessary, why not fly on commercial airlines? Why use an [tag]emergency[/tag] jet that’s needed for, you know, emergencies?