Jet Demonstration Team Had Been Scheduled To Perform In The Congressman's District

The cancellation of the Blue Angel's 2013 performance schedule has dealt severe, and sometimes knockout blows to air shows and other events around the country this year. The cancellation of the performance at the Hadi ShrinersFest in Evansville, IN, the first week of July prompted that region's representative in Congress to write a letter to Secretary Of the Navy Ray Mabus asking that funding for the performances be restored.

Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN-08) said in his letter that “While I fully support cutting wasteful spending within the DOD, grounding a low-cost expenditure like the Blue Angels ... appears politically motivated,” according to a report appearing in the Evansville, IN, Courier-Press online. He said DoD should look for other ways to cut spending as required by the sequester, noting $700 million annually in alternative energy research, which he says duplicates efforts by the Department of Energy, and $580 million in global health initiatives, which he says is more than the CDC or the NIH spend on such programs.

The organizers of the festival said that the cancellation of the Blue Angels performance was not unexpected, and that an air show will still be part of the ShrineFest in Evansville July 3-7.

FMI: http://bucshon.house.gov