| CBO ANALYSIS: BOEING LEASING DEAL TOTALS $37 BILLION; ‘SIGNIFICANTLY MORE EXPENSIVE' THAN TANKER PURCHASE |
| For Immediate Release |
| Wednesday, May 08, 2002 |
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Washington, DC – Adding to the growing chorus of respected government agencies who have thoroughly analyzed the Air Force proposal to lease 100 Boeing jetliners for use as refueling tankers, the director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) confirmed in a letter to Sen. John McCain that "a long-term lease of tanker aircraft would be significantly more expensive than a direct purchase of such aircraft."
Last month, Senator McCain joined Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman and Ranking Member Carl Levin and John Warner, respectively, in requesting an analysis of the Air Force's proposal to lease 100 Boeing planes, modify the aircraft into tankers and then convert them back to commercial airliners at the end of the ten-year lease. In a letter to McCain received late Tuesday, Dan Crippen, Director of CBO, wrote that the total cost of the leasing proposal as analyzed by the CBO would total $37 billion while an outright purchase of the tanker aircraft would cost the taxpayers $25 billion. Earlier this week, Mitch Daniels, Director of the Office of Management and Budget estimated the cost of the lease at $26 billion. "CBO is one of the most respected non-partisan agencies in Washington. Their analysis confirms what everyone already knows: this leasing proposal is a bad deal for taxpayers, a bad deal for the military and a bad deal for pretty much everyone but Boeing," said McCain. |
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