Letter to the editor

The Pentagon and Congress are trading in their aging clunker C-20 jets for newer $200 million C-37 jets. As reported in the Aug. 8 Pittsburgh Tribune, the Pentagon asked for one new C-20 jet but Congress insisted that the Pentagon should have three new C-20 jets. The justification for the three newer jets was that the old C-20 operates at a cost of $6,100, while the newer C-37 jets operate at a cost of $2,700.

The planes will be based at Andrews Air Force Base, conveniently located in a Washington suburb for Pentagon staff and Congressional members. Congressional members that generally fly these noncommercial jets include House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who flies between Washington, D.C., and her home in San Francisco. According to the Pittsburgh Tribune, “The Pentagon describes the mission of the planes as flying ‘worldwide special air missions for high-ranking government and Defense Department officials.’”

Conveniently, $200 million for comfy planes can be found hidden in the Pentagon’s $636 billion war budget and approved by the House. Amazing that some of that $200 million could not be removed from the war chests and comfy planes cost and put into health care for the poor and working poor.

Nevertheless, while the Pentagon and Congress ride in $200 million comfy jets, the residents of Pittsburgh—where thousands of jobs have been lost and caused a high rise in unemployment—will be joined by thousands of poor and working poor in Pittsburgh on Sept. 20 to demand jobs, health care, and other human needs.