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Lavish spending on travel by inside-the-Beltway politicos found itself in the crosshairs at both ABC and CBS. CBS' Bob Orr focused on the White House and its Marine One helicopter fleet. Lockheed Martin has been assigned the task of updating the President's 30-year-old choppers and has come up with an $11bn price tag. Each helicopter would be equipped with "tons of communications gear and defensive systems capable of fending off missiles and even the effects of a nuclear blast." Lockheed is building 28 of them so that three are at the President's disposal at each stop when he makes a trip on Air Force One.
ABC's Jonathan Karl looked at expensive overseas travel by Congressional delegations. He cited a recent oversight trip on NATO to Belgium, Austria, France and Germany that had used a military aircraft. Rep Gary Ackerman had teased automobile industry executives for traveling in private jets last year: "Couldn't you all have downgraded to first class?" Karl pointed out that first class was precisely what Ackerman used in an official trip to Britain last February. The round trip cost was $14,000.
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