Health And Human Services Secretary Tom Price Resigns Over TravelGate

Tom Price

Saying he regrets that "recent events have created a distraction" for the Trump administration, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price offered his letter of resignation

The "events" that Price references are, of course, the nearly $1 million of taxpayer money in private chartered and military plane flights Price traveled by on government business.

Pretty swampity, swamp swamp if you ask me.

From CNN:

Politico first reported Price's use of charter jets for official business last week and found that the secretary has traveled on charter flights at least 24 times since May, citing people familiar with his travel plans and a review of HHS documents.

Charter plane operators estimated 24 flights would have cost $400,000, Politico reported. Commercial trips would have cost thousands of dollars less. The Health and Human Services inspector general is reviewing whether the means of travel was appropriate.

Later, it was revealed that Price also took US military aircraft on two trips abroad, bringing the total cost of his non-commercial travel to more than $1 million. The military flights were approved by the White House.

On Thursday, Price offered to write a personal check to cover his private charter travel saying, "The taxpayers won't pay a dime for my seat on those planes."

But the optics worsened when it was revealed he planned to write a check for only $51,887.31, a miniscule percentage of the total cost of the private flights.

According to reports, Donald Trump was angered not only by the optics of the transgression, but also for appearing to overshadow the rollout of Trump's tax reform proposal.

You can read Price's resignation letter below.