The White House needs a better Long Distance plan
By laglen
@laglen (19759)
United States
December 3, 2010 3:29pm CST
President Obama, in the dark of night, headed out for a 14 hour flight to Afghanistan to meet with Karzai.
Due to weather conditions, Obama could not complete the trip. So he spoke to Karzai on the phone.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/as_obama;_ylt=An10HQGLa_4Fd6Xyny_kicas0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTM4bXN0dDhnBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAxMjAzL2FzX29iYW1hBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMQRwb3MDMgRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDYWZnaGFudHJpcG9i
It costs $181,000 per hour to fly Airforce One.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/11/24/military-pegs-hourly-air-force-cost-g-obama-sets-travel-record/
14 hours times $181,000 = $2,534,000.
International call from washington to Afghanistan - $1.40 per minute.
http://www.commserv.ucsb.edu/rates/intl_rates.asp
Lets say for the sake of argument that the phone call was 30 minutes.
$1.40 per minute for 30 minutes = $42.00
That could have saved tax payers $2,533,960.00
in less than 24 hours!
There now, why cant our government figure this out?
Even better, he could have gone to weather.com and found out that the weather would be bad...
1 person likes this
7 responses
@hofferp (4734)
• United States
3 Dec 10
Until we have a balanced budget and we've decreased our debt by 10 trillian, as a minimum. They (Administration, Congress and Court) all need to stay home. And I'm not talking Washington. Maybe they all need to return to their home states and "telecommute", since that law has recently been passed. Without anyone in Washington to bribe, maybe the lobbiests would go home too. At home, maybe they'd do less damage...
1 person likes this
@matersfish (6306)
• United States
3 Dec 10
To hell with that $42! He could have used Skype and talked for free. 
I do understand the need to pop up in places. Sure. I won't come down on people for that.
But in times like these, considering that there's probably nothing "new" coming from a visit, they could email and never miss a beat.
I'm fairly certain that, should politicians ever be made to pay out of pocket for trips, they'd suddenly take fewer trips. And the world wouldn't suffer in the slightest for it.
Not bashing Obama and the schmuck patrol this go 'round. Just sayin'...
I do understand the need to pop up in places. Sure. I won't come down on people for that.
But in times like these, considering that there's probably nothing "new" coming from a visit, they could email and never miss a beat.
I'm fairly certain that, should politicians ever be made to pay out of pocket for trips, they'd suddenly take fewer trips. And the world wouldn't suffer in the slightest for it.
Not bashing Obama and the schmuck patrol this go 'round. Just sayin'...1 person likes this
@skysuccess (8858)
• Singapore
4 Dec 10
laglen,
I can understand your feasibility concerns here but I have to say that somethings just cannot be done over the phone. I mean, there are people, cultures, customs and most of all certain matters that just do not work things out over the phone.
Video conferencing, VOIP and whatever technologies are no strangers to everyone but still it can never replace the physical presence and handshakes offline. Also, I think signing of contracts, memorandums of understandings, bilateral or unilateral agreements could be done online. So, as much as, how technologies can be seen feasible and practical - it will just have its limitations.
Liken to a mailed greeting card than an electronic one, I am sure the feelings of receiving them is different.
@dark_joev (3034)
• United States
3 Dec 10
Okay I am going to bring this out of the White house for just a second to give you some examples.
Lets say for a moment a big CEO of some massive company wants to share information with another CEO from Company B. So instead of calling the person he gets on his plane cost the company $250,000 dollars to fly him there and something happens to where he can't make it so he calls the guy. And they seal a deal for the company that will bring in $400,000 dollars was it worth it. Yes because the company will be able to make a profit off of a loss.
As for the whole presidents plane trip thing. That didn't cost us money as Air Force 1 is paid for from the DOD's Budget and not the travel expense of the president. The reason the President can and should use Air Force 1 is so he can make face to face meetings with people. It is always better to meet the person face to face than to talk with them over the phone because you can use your body language to impact emotions in the other person.
@dark_joev (3034)
• United States
4 Dec 10
Yeah imagine if our generals used Skype instead of coming to the United States man what nerve of them to spend our money so they can request things in person or over a secured line in one of our bases outside of the combat zone. I mean really we have Skype.
Okay for you people who don't know Skype and any other VOIP service doesn't encrypt the messages or connection that you two are using so anyone with a little bit of computer skill can tap into your line and listen and in this case watch what is going on. This could be more damaging than some wikileaks stuff that is just conversations and things that may not reflect actual things our government supports. IF our Military or even the President used unencrypted lines we could have major issues as that would mean that the President that does have authorization to use launch Nuclear Weapons could be compromised because anyone with a network security background knows that the thing you have to worry about when trying to secure an network is the one open socket to the outside world. The president can't use unencrypted lines on his blackberry phone you think he can make a long distance call like you can. I mean really use your brain for once instead of your right or left wing minds please.
Also you do know the President is the Commander of the Military so the reference to the Generals is in line with the Presidents actual job.
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
4 Dec 10
Apparently, some folks don't understand about budgets, dark_joev...or secured phone lines. They would rather two leaders talk on standard phone lines so that everyone and his uncle can listen to the conversation.
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
3 Dec 10
Pick...pick...pick....pick.
This trip was not *planned* at the last minute you know. No, you probably don't realize that...just like you don't seem to realize that the money spent was part of the budget for fiscal year 2010 and if he hadn't left when he did, he would have left at another designated day and time so the money would still have been spent.
