How Much Do The Blue Angels Cost Taxpayers?

Each time the roar of the Blue Angels echo through the streets of Baltimore, as these expertly skilled pilots guide with inhuman precision their glorious blue jets through our city's skies, it's easy to feel that rumble in your gut and have the intended resposnse, "America! Fuck yeah! We're awesome!"

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But we live in an age of the Great Republican Rescession. We taxpayers live in the current Conservative Age of Austerity. More and more, our elected officials vote to cut public services because, we are told, we can no longer afford them.

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Never mind that the rich (now ironically called the "job creators") are experiencing record profits. Never mind we are living in an era of the richest corporations ever in the history of man. We, the taxpayers, can't afford healthcare.

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So perhaps we should take a monent to reflect on how much these awesome Blue Angels are actually costing us.

The basic acquisition price of an F/A-18 A Hornet is approximately $21 million per plane. However, after being specially equipped, each plane costs $56 million.

The US Navy budgets about $40 million a year to maintain the squadron.

It costs $13,344,000 in fuel alone (based on 2010 fuel prices) to just train one Commanding Officer and $85,957,200 in fuel for the training of the 14 other pilots.

According to the Boston Phoenix, in 2007, annual salaries for 114 support personnel cost $5.6 million. Pilot salaries cost approximately $12 million annually.

It costs roughly $20 million in fuel expenses for shows (rehersals and performances, based on 2010 jet fuel price) a year.

Plus, it costs approximately $2 million on staff lodging and meals to do these shows each year.

So based on these numbers, the Blue Angels cost American taxpayers roughly $112 million every year.

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In this age of misguided conservative austerity, keep that in mind as the jets fly over Baltimore, a city who can't afford its rec centers. A city that can't afford comprehensive infrastructure maintenance. A city that can't afford to maintain its firehouses. A city that can't afford adequate mass transit.

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Those jets aren't just burning fuel - they're burning taxpayer dollars that could be helping people.

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Comments

[Rick]

I think your estimate is low. At least one C-130 type plane accompanies the group to each air show. We could add the cost of the Air Force Thunderbirds.

And I don't think the Blue Angel shows really help with recruiting. They do nothing for advancing our military readiness.

They are dangerous, noisy, air polluting, assaults on hundreds of neighborhoods whose citizens only get a glimpse of them.

But you can't touch the beloved Blue Angels.

[Jon Sievert]

They do it just to let you know what they are capable of if the little people get too noisy and upset.

[shady]

Estimate is probably high. What you're not considering is that all the planes, support staff and officers are already in the Navy, and would be assigned somewhere else if they didn't fly with the squadron. Most of the resources would be utilized in other ways which might actually use them more. Only the uniquely Blue Angels-specific expenses (marketing, travel, uniforms, etc) are in addition to what the DOD is already budgeted.

[gARYb]

Congressman Jeff Miller has stated support for a sequestration deal that would cut $1.2 trillion from the deficit over ten years, even though the proposed cuts to the Navy’s budget would eliminate many performances by the Blue Angels — including the popular July show at Pensacola Beach.

“I want to see the Blue Angels fly as much as anybody else, but this country is in a serious financial position,” Miller said Wednesday. “And if the only way that we can get control of spending is through sequestration, I’m ready to go in that direction — even if it means the Blue Angels suspending some of their air shows.”

“In order to do what this country needs to do, we can no longer afford to do the things we like to do,” Miller added.

By grounding the Blue Angels from April through September, the Navy would save $20 million per year. Other cutbacks, like unpaid furloughs for most civilian employees, would add up to a $4 billion reduction in the Navy’s annual budget.

The $20 million for the Blue Angels represents less than 0.002% of the total $1.2 trillion sequestration deal, but the impact on the Pensacola community would be great.

According to a report given last August by Rod Lewis, director of the Haas Center for Business Research and Economic Development, the July air show alone brings about 15,000 more visitors to Pensacola Beach than a typical July weekend and has a regional economic impact of approximately $2.5 million.

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20 MILLION SAVED OVER THE ENTIRE SUMMER BUT WOULD HAVE PROVIDED 2.5 MILLION IN ECONOMIC IMPACT PER SHOW. 15 SHOWS THIS SUMMER.... DO THE MATH.... IT'S A MUCH BETTER RETURN ON OUR MONEY THAN THE "STIMULUS" PACKAGE THAT COST US $300,000 PER JOB "CREATED". THE BLUE ANGELS ACTUALLY MAKE MONEY WHEREAS THE "STIMULUS" COST MONEY.... A LOT OF MONEY

[gARYb]

oh.... and one other thing....

your numbers are off

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The Finance Department published a document showing that the Navy budgeted $39 million for the Blue Angels in 2012. Traveling around the country, the squadron planned to put on shows for 69 days in 2012.

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[mike]

The Blue Angels show in Seattle--they have traditionally visited every August--was cancelled for 2013.

[Nick Panzer]

Your ignorance and penchant for distortion is typical.

"Republican recession?!"

You clearly have NO idea how we got here, nor can you point to ONE W Bush policy that caused the collapse.

The real estate/mortgage bubble and collapse was DECADES in the making, and primarily due to government intervention in and resulting distortion of the mortgage market, with the idiotic goal that everyone should own their own home.

Of course, these were all big government programs, and not one of them was enacted by W Bush.

In fact, the W Bush administration warned Barney Frank and Chris Dodd at least SIX times, from 2003 to 2008, that Fannie Mae was in jeopardy of collapse due to too much investment in risky debt, but they refused to reform it.

As usual, the left-wing kook is clueless.

[George W. Bush]

Remember when I said this in 2004?
"...if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of our country. The more ownership there is in America, the more vitality there is in America, and the more people have a vital stake in the future of this country."

More from my info page:
"The President believes that homeownership is the cornerstone of America's vibrant communities and benefits individual families by building stability and long-term financial security. In June 2002, President Bush issued America's Homeownership Challenge to the real estate and mortgage finance industries to encourage them to join the effort to close the gap that exists between the homeownership rates of minorities and non-minorities. The President also announced the goal of increasing the number of minority homeowners by at least 5.5 million families before the end of the decade. Under his leadership, the overall U.S. homeownership rate in the second quarter of 2004 was at an all time high of 69.2 percent. Minority homeownership set a new record of 51 percent in the second quarter, up 0.2 percentage point from the first quarter and up 2.1 percentage points from a year ago."

I was a terrible president. Perhaps the worst in American history. And, oh yeah, Republicans are incapable of governing responsibly.

Now watch this drive...