Government waste?

[katy_kay08]

This weekend is Sea Fair weekend in Seattle and the highlight of the festival is the annual air show featuring the Darlings of the Navy...The Blue Angels.  

They are amazing to watch but one really can't ignore the fact that they are essentially a $40 million a year ad campaign.  Is this money well spent? Or should they be grounded in order to trim an bursting at the seams defence budget?  

This article is from last year but I'm posting it for background information

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2015832826_blueangels06m.html

[Peanutx3]

They are truly amazing to see and the weather this weekend is perfect for their show but I think while we are having a budget crisis in this country they should be grounded.

[momtimesx4]

Well, being as the Army is pulling out of Nascar, Navy might be doing the same. 

[momof31995]

I guess if they ground the blue angels then they would have to also disband the marine corps silent drill team and the presidents own marine corps marching band not to mention the army's honor guard. Wow that is alot of people in the service of our country that will be out of work they trained extremely hard for and the same as telling them that they are less in service of their country than the common grunt.

[Donna6503]

Well DoD is already cutting training time for many pilots across the services. I would hope they would cut the "Blue Angels" before they start cutting the main core of training for all the services.

[mikiemom]

The money funded for current government programs was POM'd for 5 years ago. In other words the money is already spent. There may be cuts going forward but that will be over 5 years out.

[rfhsure]

 I can agree with that, especially since you can drive about an hour north to arlington and watch an air show for free. They're not fighter jets but they do pretty much all the same tricks.

[Lizardannie1966]

Where does this $40 million go?

For now they should be grounded I feel.

[katy_kay08]

Do these other units cost this much to keep per year?  Would they be out of work or moved to other units?  Is there nothing else they are trained to do?  

Quoting momof31995:

I guess if they ground the blue angels then they would have to also disband the marine corps silent drill team and the presidents own marine corps marching band not to mention the army's honor guard. Wow that is alot of people in the service of our country that will be out of work they trained extremely hard for and the same as telling them that they are less in service of their country than the common grunt.

[katy_kay08]

I'm finding myself agreeing with you.  Is this money that could be diverted into programs that help our combat units?  

Quoting Donna6503:

Well DoD is already cutting training time for many pilots across the services. I would hope they would cut the "Blue Angels" before they start cutting the main core of training for all the services.

[momof31995]

These units fly all over the world just like the angels. And no they are not trained to do other jobs so the cost of retraining them would be high too. also the Morale of the troops and their families are integral to the service of this country.