Air Force One Is Just The Tip Of The Boeing Iceberg

By Chris Rossini

Once again President-Elect Trump grabs some good optics. The businessman goes to Washington to save taxpayer money. 

Trump tweeted today:

Boeing is building a brand new 747 Air Force One for future presidents, but costs are out of control, more than $4 billion. Cancel order!

As reporters scramble to find out if the $4 billion dollar figure is accurate, it probably doesn't matter. Trump capitalizes on good politics right now. Numbers are boring details.

While it would be great for a Trump Administration to actually cut the size and scope of government overall, that's not likely to happen. Trump's not a limited government guy and actually wants to "rebuild" the world's biggest military empire, that ironically admitted today to wasting $125 billion. (Not so fun fact: They waste way more than that. Think TRILLIONS! But again, those are just boring details).

What's important to Trump is that his tweet gives the impression that he's coming in to crack some skulls, and that's what counts from a PR perspective.

At the very least, Trump is shining a light on one of America's biggest corporate welfare queens and prominent member of the military-industrial complex: Boeing.

Air Force One costs are merely the tip of the iceberg. 

The U.S. government has a corporate welfare "bank" known as The Export-Import Bank. It subsidizes Boeing to the tune of so many billions that it's often referred to as "The Boeing Bank". Even President Obama admitted that the Export-Import Bank is “little more than a fund for corporate welfare." That didn't stop Obama from re-authorizing it, of course.

The Export-Import bank is where the real action is. If Trump wants to save our hard-earned money from being flushed away on corporate welfare, he'd go after that.

Air Force One is pennies compared to the government's corporate welfare "bank".

As Ron Paul has written:

Government programs that take funds from the private sector and use them to fund projects that cannot get market funding reduce economic efficiency and lower living standards. Yet Ex-Im actually brags about its support for projects rejected by the market!

We have the biggest and most expensive government on the planet. Slashing pennies won't save us. Even the massive F-35 boondoggle makes Air Force One look like child's play.

Trump should call for the immediate dissolution of FDR's unconstitutional creation known as the Export-Import Bank. Let's put real money back in the working man's pockets.

Tweet that out President Trump!