Spending cuts due to ground Navy's Blue Angels flying team

We spent to much,its time to cut back. It will be a drag but its the right thing to do. Hopefully when we get this straight we will be stronger and wiser.

And? The Dems are once again screaming that the world will end if any money is cut from the budget. Getting really old now……

I grew up a Navy brat, married to a recently retired sailor, and have been to countless airshows. I live 15 miles from a Navy base and took my kids there and to the one at the beach. The crowds are huge and traffic is a nightmare so we tried a pleasant alternative by anchoring our boat in the river at the end of the runway. Also, the Blue Angels is the show’s “grand finale”. It’s factual when I state, after a long day, many spectators bail out right before they perform for reasons such as children are tired & bored, hot weather, or to avoid the mass exodus.

Chicken Littles: why is cutting a measly 2.5% shutting everything down?

Answer: it isn’t, the King and his minions are.

Since we borrow 40% of what we spend, we should get rid of all programs which do nothing for this country. The Angels are just circus. Same for the Peace Corp, NPR, and the department of Education. This only scratches the surface. I am sure others have their own list. I have a lot of ideas to save federal money. Reducing spending by 2% should be a piece of cake. That we cannot do this in an orderly fashion bespeaks a much greater problem.

When a certain Air Force 747 gets grounded, then will we know that grounding the Blue Angels was necessary. Unless that happens, it is just a stunt Obama is pulling to anger people at his political opponents.

Just like school budgets that are voted down. The school board would drop buses, sports and band uniforms, rather than making cuts in the bloated budgets. Methinks a couple of Admirals should be called on to visit the House of Representatives to explain there actions. Oh notice to S.o.t.H. Boehner, keep Henry “Guam tip over Johnson” locked in a closet.

After Sequester comes into play tonight and the world hasn’t ended, the curtain will be pulled back and the Great and Mighty Oz will be shown to be the fake he really is.

It is a shame, this has to happen because adults supposedly representing the people that voted them into office cannot act on the wishes of the folks they represent.

Forty million a year that pumps many multiples of that into the local economies every year. Isn’t 40 million about the same amount of taxpayer money Obama spends on his numerous family vacations? Obviously the serfs and not the king will have to suffer. If there was ever an example of the disdain PBO has for the US citizen this is it.

Why are the Blue Angels grounded and the Thunderbirds are not?

Would one of you liberals kindly explain to me why the president’s fiscal year 2013 tax increases of about $150 billion will be less destructive than the scheduled cuts of about $85 billion, considering they are twice the size?

According to Obama, taking $150B out of the private sector is no problem. But, somehow, cutting half of that amount from government spending is going to be disastrous…is anyone buying that garbage?

The cuts have to come at some point … but the real question is should we make the cuts to programs that support national pride and national defense or do we make them to social programs that enable those who are unproductive to remain so? It’s time for some tough love America … get a job or go without your Obama phone.

how about cutting air force one travels to one a week..

How can there ever be a Bowl Game without the flyovers?

Will the Obama’s have to cut back on their flying vacations all over the country?

Will the Obama’s have to leave some of their extended families, or part of their staffs at home?

Will billions of dollars of tax money went to the Muslim Brotherhood have to be cut back?

This could be a lot worse than anyone realizes!

We cannot afford these air shows. Cancel them. If someone wants to see the show pay the full price ticket. Not trying to be mean but we will have to cut many things, This is one of them. Many many many things,

Yes, the Angels should take back seat to front line forces. However, there is much fat that can be cut before they cut this. Of course, cutting this is visible to fand of the Blue Angels. Closing some base in a Congressman’s district that should have been closed 20 years ago won’t upset the public (except in the town where the base is).

Routine refueling of nuclear subs and carriers that are planned for years in advance now don’t have funds available to do the job. If money wasn’t being wasted on retrofitting women’s bathroom facilities on these vessels the money to do their actual missions might be readily forthcoming. Guess the Thunderbirds will have pick up the slack.

AirForce One should be grounded. Very few realize the total cost of flying all the trucks, cars, limo’s, security and many other items too numerous to list.

Sensible thing to do.

@jaham, The answer is very simple, but you are probably unwilling to accept it, because the vast majority of the tax increases gets put back into the economy via government spending. But you wont accept that because you think any government is bad.

This is exactly like a small town mayor, who, when faced with a budget cut or wants a raise in taxes, tells all manner of stories about how the only things left to cut are police, fire, parks and libraries. When looked at in the larger picture, $85 billion in cuts is tiny compared to the $3.7 TRILLION that was spent last year. But, these cuts are going to decimate the entire federal government?!?! Why not try something that doesn’t insult our intelligence. Oh well, at least Obama has figured out how to act like a small town mayor, that’s a few small steps above a community organizer. At this pace though, he’ll never get to acting like even a first year president…

This is exactly like a small town mayor, who, when faced with a budget cut or wants a raise in taxes, tells all manner of stories about how the only things left to cut are police, fire, parks and libraries. When looked at in the larger picture, $85 billion in cuts is tiny compared to the $3.7 TRILLION that was spent last year. But, these cuts are going to decimate the entire federal government?!?! Why not try something that doesn’t insult our intelligence. Oh well, at least Obama has figured out how to act like a small town mayor, that’s a few small steps above a community organizer. At this pace though, he’ll never get to acting like even a first year president…

If this keeps one kid from aspiring to join the Navy, the liberals will be happy. The awesome sight that opens a young kid’s mind to a military career is a ‘dangerous one’ to them. They’ve got to keep them in the system to control them.

It’s a matter of priorities. Apparently the feds have all sorts of money to support unproductive slugs and even furnish them with cell phones, but the Blue Angels don’t rate. Cry me a river.

$40 Million for over two dozen shows…or about $1.5 Million per show.
That makes about as much sense as the USPS paying Lance Armstrong $30 Million to wear their logo on his shirt.

Good, I hated when I lived in the city and they would fly over for a week, obnoxious waste of money.

At least it wasn’t the Thunderbirds …

Programs like the Blue Angels are one of the best recruiting tools for the US armed forces. Far more effective than the millions spent on commercials. The Angels inspire, commercials annoy.

Besides that, not sure why the BAs are suffering a complete sequestration of the program. I thought it was a 2.5% across the board cut. What pet Obammy project is avoiding any funding cut as the burden is placed on this program?

We need to cut about 8.5 trillion out of the budget. This argument is silly.

judester wrote: “AirForce One should be grounded. Very few realize the total cost of flying all the trucks, cars, limo’s, security and many other items too numerous to list.”

EVERY time Obozo wants to go golfing and Moochelle wants to take another lavish vacation dragging along her mooching friends.

Ground the Blue Angels or stop Michelle’s gallivanting all over the planet with family and friends at a huge taxpayer expense?

Hum, I believe it’s in America’s best interest to ground Michelle rather than the Blue Angels.

@USAPragmatist – Government spending does not create jobs. Before they can spend the money they must TAKE it from the productive sector. Skimming a percentage off the top to run government and then putting the rest back into the economy is a net loss to the economy. Yes, government other than military is bad.

People need to realize that this is NOT a cut in government spending. It is a cut in the rate of growth. If your boss promises you a pay raise of $100/wk and then comes back and says sorry you can only get $98/wk that is still a pay raise. Not as much as you had hoped but more than you had. Saying these are cuts is a lie.

Syracuse NY cancelled their airshow years ago for lack of funding. New York State is a hellhole. Nobody knows how we lower middle class suffer here – from our quality of living to our freedoms. Many of us can’t get out. It’s a catch 22. You need money to leave. The Blue Angels is a small loss. Obama and all his minions, including Cuomo and Bloomberg, are destroying this country ON PURPOSE. May those of you who voted for him rot in hell.

This sequester cuts nothing. We will spend more this year than last. The only person in government telling the truth is Senator Rand Paul.

You rightie/Obama haters are nuts…

batmanRox said ‘We need to cut about 8.5 trillion out of the budget.’ how can you do that when the budget is only about 3.5 T a year?

judester said ‘AirForce One should be grounded. Very few realize the total cost of flying all the trucks, cars, limo’s, security and many other items too numerous to list.’, So are you proposing that the most important person in the world should not have any security?

I got an idea, instead of just bitching, why not act like adults instead of crybabies and propose a REAL solution to our issues, like this…

My VERY simplified 5 point plan to balance our budget…

1. Remove ALL the tax breaks that benefit less then 5% of the citizens.
2. Tax ALL income the same, as in no special rates for Capital Gains.
3. GRADUALLY (as in over 5-10 years) reduce defense spending to 50% of current levels ( as a % of GDP of course)
4. Reform corporate tax code that greatly favors big corporations, and hurts small businesses.
5. Simple reforms to SS and Medicare, e.g. removing the cap on income covered by payroll taxes.

When you look at the differences in our budget between now and when we last had a balanced budget(Clinton years), these are the main differences you will see. AS mentioned before, you can not look at raw numbers, but as a % of GDP.

AirFrank, ‘Government spending does not create jobs.’, tell that to every construction worker working on infrastructure projects, tell that to every teach, policeman, or firefighter, tell that to every member of the military, do I really need to go on?

The uber rich that pay less then I do in taxes are simply taking that money and putting it in the bank, now THAT is a net loss to the economy. People like you do not understand that income inequality in this country is one of the main reasons we have a bad economy now, since a large % of the wealth is concentrated in a small % of the population the overall purchasing power of the consumer is much less than it would be if the wealth was more evenly distributed. Yes this is income redistribution, and there is nothing wrong with that when done in a balanced, regulated capitalism way.

This should have been cut long ago if the Republicans were really serious about wasteful spending just like providing congress members with free cars, gas, air travel etc but they make wasteful spending a political issue while wasting tax money.

Blue Angles are great to watch, but not at $28,000,000 per year. Too many programs like this. If we’re to protect our tax payers and older folks, we must distinguish between wants and needs..and this is a definite want (like so many others).

USAPragmatist – most of your 5 points I agree with, except 3. One of the main responsibilities of the Federal Government is maintaining our armed forces for the defense of our nation. Now, if you mean curbing things like DHS, then I can go along with that. However, to cut our military in half while China is undergoing a massive military buildup is simply asinine. I’d rather see a 50% cut to entitlement spending. It’s not really the role of the federal government (however you want to twist the term ‘general welfare’). Besides, when you make poverty easy, you just destroy incentive to get out of poverty.

Aw! Gee! The low information voters who put Obama and his cabal in office would not even notice, if they even knew of this team.

It is time we did away with the “entertainment government”
and reinstituted a success implimenting efficient one,
instead of the proverbial “campaign for office government”
of Obama and his party.

@Jameson4Lunch, do not get me wrong, I am a BIG advocate for an advanced, and best, military. However we do not need to be the ‘world police’, all we need is a small VERY technologically advanced military to protect ourselves. And if a war comes where we need a mass number of ‘boots on the ground’, draft them up. I do not think anyone is going to ‘take us out’ when we have thousands of nukes. And with some of the crazy space plane like cruise missiles DARPA has been developing and other advanced technologies, the need for overseas bases goes away. It just has to be done smartly and gradually, it is a wonder why NONE of the questioning directed at Sec. Hagel addressed topics like this.

According to liberals, tax hikes don’t hurt the economy but government spending cuts do…my, how convenient that is to support their tax and spend mentality…

Average attendance to airshows is 250,000-300,000. Whey not charge a measly $5 to get in? 250,000 x 5 = $1,250,000. That should cover it. Plus, vendor rentals and trinket sales. Oh yeah, that wouldn’t punish the taxpayers enough.

@jaham, no one has never said that tax hikes do not have the potential to slow down the economy, they just do not have as much of an effect as spending cuts. Plus the type of tax cuts that we have had in the last 15 years have greatly benefited the top 5%, helping to increase the level of income inequality, which does hurt the economy in the long run as I explained earlier.

All those guys do is turn jet fuel into noise.

Maybe these venue’s that are racking in all the money from the shows, should start funding them? There is no way America can continue to spend money on entertainment like this in our current fiscal circumstances. We also can’t afford paying everyone else’s bills, especially other countries!

Can we tolerate the end of a totally useless organization?

USA Pragmatist, I’m not an Obama hater but I am Conservative. I like your 5 point plan if amended as follows..
1 Remove all tax breaks that benefit less than 5% of the citizens. I agree as long as that includes all of our government leaders. I’ve yet to hear one comment about a cut that our upper levels of government will endure. Has anyone in Congress proposed to cut their pay, gold level benefits, pension, etc? If Congress was to be furloughed one day a week, would anyone even notice? They haven’t done their jobs for years.
2. Are we going to tax all income-even the entitlement income??
4. Reform Corporate tax Code that greatly favors big corporations,etc. Good Luck with that. Those corporations are the ones lining the pockets of our elected officials. How else can someone serve in Congress, make $170k annually and come out with tens of millions in net worth?

The uber rich do pay lower tax rates in percentages. My question is-what do you get from your government if you pay millions more? Do you get more protection, more services, more anything??

Most people I know have learned to live on less income than they did even a few years ago. Is the Federal Government so efficient that this small cut in the increase amount will cause all of these cuts? I seriously doubt it. They could probably cut billions in programs we’ve never heard of and no one would even notice. This government is addicted to spending and they will spend as much as they can make the people pay- and still ask for more. When does it stop??