Remember those $600 toilet seats?

[unhappycamper]

Six hundred dollars ain't shit; Black Hawk helicopters are getting a $17,000 oil/tranny fluid drip pan.




http://www.stripes.com/news/army/earmark-puts-17-000-drip-pans-on-army-helicopter-1.177610
Earmark puts $17,000 drip pans on Army helicopter
Published: May 19, 2012

A powerful Kentucky congressman known for steering tens of millions of federal dollars to his district directed the Army to buy drip pans for its Black Hawk helicopters that cost $17,000 apiece, although a similar part is available for $2,500, The New York Times reported.



I'm sure that Phoenix Products in Kentucky appreciates the no-bid contract courtesy of Kentucky Rep. Harold Rogers, R-naturally.

[Drale]

1. How about we just bend some sheet metal into a pan shape

I bet that could be done for under 100 bucks.

[Initech]

20. Why do that when there's obscene profits to be had?

[Enrique]

2. never mind that

the real waste is helping poor people buy food.

[MADem]

3. Diamond encrusted bullet-proofed platinum, perhaps? Or maybe they're made of KRYPTONITE???

Good catch--each drip pan could fund a lot of prosthetic work for returning wounded.

[unhappycamper]

4. Yup.

[butterfly77]

5. When republiCONS/teaBaggers..

come on tv talking about we need to cut the spending I always listen to hear if the host of the show will bring up this type of spending.

[lonestarnot]

12. Good luck with that listening project.

[MadHound]

6. Are you honestly falling for that?

We're not paying six hundred dollars for toilet seats, or seventeen thousand for drip pans. What we are spending that money for is those black box CIANSAFBI projects that Congress isn't allowed to inspect, or know what they are, they just get to vote to fund them, essentially blind funding.

This is where the money for these "outrageously priced" products go.

[MADem]

10. That's odd. When I was doing budgets, that piece wasn't "justified."

It was done behind closed doors and never became part of the public debate. There was no "skimming" or "padding" going on--there was just a Big Chunk Of Money that was allocated with the door locked and the cameras turned off to cryptic-sounding programs or projects--not something as simple as a part on a piece of equipment that was part of the "public" budget.

I think this is what it is--plain old graft and corruption, a "kickback" to a major campaign bundler/contributor-- not a "cover story" for black ops. If it were a cover story for black ops, they'd come up with a better one, surely.

This is ancient history, but it provides a "sense" of the matter: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.11/patton_pr.html

[yellerpup]

7. The competitor can make the drip pans for $2,500.

When asked why Phoenix pans are so expensive, the owner said it would 'hurt national security' if he gave out the secret so STFU and trust me.

[2on2u]

8. I hope the drone drip pans will be a couple thousand dollars less. n/t

[lastlib]

9. Hal Rogers--should've known.

The guy is a major-league asshole.

Two years ago, I drove thru Kentucky. Got confused by the piss-poor highway signage, and wound up on "the Hal Rogers Parkway". There are only two good roads in the state--I-64, and the gold-plated Hal Rogers Parkway. (every other highway I was on was absolute shit.) The Hal Rogers Parkway is literally the Highway to Hell. No exits, and no signs telling you where you are. I think the man could teach Saddam Hussein things about self-aggrandizement.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. Well, we wouldn't want our money wasted on anything useful like hospitals or food.

[Grantuspeace]

13. It is funny that the Republicans see waste, fraud and a bloated bureaucracy

In absolutely everything except defense spending.

[Odin2005]

14. In any other country this would be called CORRUPTION.

[progressoid]

15. But here it's known as Patriotism!

USA! USA! USA!

[slackmaster]

16. I remember President Reagan joking "In fairness that was a $600 cover for the entire toilet system."

[Egalitarian Thug]

17. And this is how you buy a $100B military for $1T.

Pure pork politics. Corporate welfare on a massive scale, weapons systems that don't work and the Generals don't want, and a procurement system that would make Al Capone blush, but the people in uniform get to go on food stamps...
K&R

[cynatnite]

18. If you ask why they cost so damn much, you're helping the terrorists...

That's according to the company's CEO.

Tom Wilson, who owns Phoenix Products, defended his company's pans as better-constructed and more durable than others on the market. Asked what made them so costly, he declined to discuss specifics, saying that disclosure of the company's custom design could help competitors or even aid America's enemies.

http://www.dallasnews.com/incoming/20120518-behind-army-s-17000-drip-pan-a-kentucky-lawmaker-s-earmark.ece

[Rosa Luxemburg]

19. Seasoned Pork

[Zax2me]

21. These government out of control spending stories are out of control.

This one is aimed at a rep at least but most of the time they are made up to target dems.

[MrScorpio]

22. The Military/Industrial/Congressional Complex Über Alles nt

[Canuckistanian]

23. Hell, I could make them for $16,500

And for that price, I could handcraft them with scrollwork and pinstriping.

I'll even throw in gold leaf gilding.

[jmowreader]

24. This is a "you gotta be shitting me" moment

A drip pan is not a complex thing. I assume they bolt to the ceiling of the aircraft under the engines and transmission, to avoid dismantling the whole helicopter (and replacing the leaky seals while they're in there, but that's another issue).

I am going to further assume there's some reason why a couple of Leavenworth inmates (preferably the Leavenworth prison with the military inmates in it) with a sheet metal brake, a drill press and a MIG welder couldn't make one of these pans in a couple hours for less than $500--and Leavenworth should already have the tools needed to accomplish this.

[Scurrilous]

25. K & R