Bill Sweetman has the scoop over at Ares:

With exquisite timing, Boeing chooses a travel weekend that's could go down in the annals of airborne horror to deliver a top-of-the-line Boeing Business Jet that will be assigned by Congress - those folks who have charged billions in air travel taxes over the decades and left us with 1930s blind-landing technology...

The C-40C, jam-packed with 40 seats by luxury-jet specialists at Greenpoint Technologies, is the third and last of a batch ordered in 2005. They will be operated by the USAF reserve to carry Congressional delegations around the world.

Funny how nobody in Washington ever mentions these $70 million jets as an example of wasteful defense spending. Or as an example of an unjustified Air Force mission that doesn't support our soldiers on the ground.

So Congress gets a new BBJ while the rest of us struggle with a decaying air traffic control infrastructure, longer waits for security, overbooked aircraft, etc. etc. etc. But I will disagree with Sweetman on one point--I don't see this as wasteful spending (actually, it's not clear Sweetman does either--I think it may just be the hypocrisy that rubs him the wrong way). Sure, it bugs me that Nancy Pelosi gets a top-of-the-line business jet for her and her colleagues at the same time as she preaches about the need to conserve energy and stop global warming. And I'm not really sure how much international travel Congress ought to be doing on the taxpayer's dime--but when they do travel, they ought to arrive in style. I was always puzzled by the wide-spread resistance in Britain to providing their prime minister with suitable transportation.

For better or worse, these Congressmen represent us, and when they go overseas, their hosts should have no reason to doubt that the United States is a powerful country with enormous resources--such enormous resources that we can afford to provide our most unserious government officials with a BBJ.