(Washington, D.C.) – Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today expressed outrage over the announcement by the Boeing Corporation that it will pursue more lease deals similar to the one recently approved by the Pentagon for 100 767 tankers at a cost of $21 billion.

“The possibility that the Pentagon might become more involved in leasing will lead to tens of billions of dollars in hidden costs,” CAGW President Tom Schatz said.  “In the Boeing tanker lease deal, taxpayers will pay more than $17 billion extra for planes that the government will never own.  Lease deals do not ‘count’ against the Pentagon’s annual procurement budget but the spending is real.  Additional leases are an irresponsible approach to procurement.”

In the case of the tankers, despite testimony from both the General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Congressional Budget Office stressing the additional cost of leasing as opposed to directly purchasing tanker aircrafts or upgrading the 127 existing KC-135E tankers, several members of Congress are apparently supporting the Boeing deal out of parochial motivations.  The company employs constituents from the districts of House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.) and Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

“Additional leasing opens the door for more special interests to get involved.  When Members of Congress defended the tanker proposal, it sent a poor message to the taxpayers,” Schatz continued.  “Their primary concern should be to protect the nation and the taxpayers, not their prospects for reelection.”

Another reason the government should not pursue leases with Boeing is that the company is being investigated by the Department of Justice and the Air Force after it was discovered to have possessed a leading competitor’s documents relating to bids for a project involving building rockets to launch spy satellites.  This follows a January GAO report which concluded that Boeing also used a competitor’s proprietary documents when developing their design for a missile defense contract bid.  In a recent confessional advertisement in major newspapers, Boeing claimed it made a mistake but really was an ethical company.

“With a $350 billion deficit, we simply cannot continue to provide such a company with so much corporate welfare,” Schatz concluded.  “Having essentially admitted to corporate espionage, Boeing should be denied any leases as well as be debarred from federal contracts for a reasonable period of time.  The tanker lease deal is a bad idea, and taxpayers should not have to suffer from any similar arrangements in the future.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is the nation’s largest nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.  For more information, please visit www.cagw.org.