Taxpayers foot bill for Bush stopovers

By Mike Allen

The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — During a February trip to New York, where he raised $2 million at a pair of re-election receptions for Gov. George Pataki, President Bush stopped by the New York Police Department’s command-and-control center for a brief tour and to give a 21-minute speech.

That side trip added a patina of government officialdom to the day. It also allowed the White House to bill taxpayers for 54 percent of the hotel rooms, rental cars and other local expenses for setting up the visit.

And because Bush is always the president — whether acting as commander in chief or head of the Republican Party — taxpayers pay the full $57,000-an-hour cost of flying Air Force One regardless of the trip’s purpose. The government also pays for most of his entourage and for the military and communications gear and evacuation helicopters that travel ahead of him.

For trips that include fund-raising, other costs — including stage lighting, rental of a hall, cars and hotel rooms for advance workers — are apportioned according to how much of the trip was political and how much was official government business.

The effect is a deep taxpayer subsidy of presidential political trips, because the parties or candidates pay far less for the total visit than does the government. New York Republicans had to reimburse the government just $5,912 for Bush’s politically focused visit in February, while the government paid many times that amount.

The accounting guidelines used by the White House were set in 1982, and Democrats benefited mightily from them during President Bill Clinton’s marathon fund-raising swings. Now it’s the GOP’s turn.

Republican officials defend the practice of transferring some costs of a largely political trip to taxpayers. "Every White House — Republican and Democratic — since Ronald Reagan has used the same formula to determine the appropriate costs of political travel," said RNC spokesman Jim Dyke. "We continue to adhere to that formula today."

At each of Bush’s out-of-town political stops this year, the White House has added a welfare forum, an education speech, a fire station visit or some other official event.

One senior administration official said each trip’s official component, known around the White House as the "policy event," is scheduled first, and then the fund-raisers are added.

That does not comport with statements from local party officials, who say they know about the fund-raisers long before a hall is booked for the official event. Other White House officials said fund-raising plans drove the schedules for several recent trips.

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