You paid for it. According to DirtySpendingSecrets.com, the federal government gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint one of its Boeing 737s like a salmon. The artwork supposedly depicts the airline's role in transporting fresh seafood to the rest of the country.
When you have a moment, surf on over to DirtySpendingSecrets.com, and prepare to be outraged. The site does a remarkable job of showing how the government wastes your tax dollars. Rooting through the budget and other expenditure records, DirtySpendingSecrets found that federal employees cost the taxpayers $146 million a year by upgrading their official travel from coach to business class--and over half the upgrades weren't authorized.
Want more? How about $500k to Alaska Airlines to paint a Chinook salmon on one of its Boeing 737s (gee, Southwest has one painted like an Orca, and managed to do it on their own dime). But here's the kicker (at least for today). According to the folks at DirtySpendingSecrets, your federal government also allocated $2.6 million to teach Chinese hookers to drink more responsibly on the job.
As the late Everett Dirksen once observed, "a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money."
***
ADDENDUM: In fairness, we should note that the federally-financed airline paint job was approved during the administration George W. Bush. That affirms the biggest Dirty Spending Secret of Them All: Pork is the only truly bi-partisan issue in Washington.
