(FamilyConservationPAC.com) – The Biden administration has spent almost $1,600,000,000 shooting down potential $12 balloons.
President Joe Biden spoke to the country for the first time on Thursday on the recent string of shoot-downs by the U.S. military, including four shoot-downs involving a Chinese surveillance balloon and three other still-unknown items.
Later on Thursday, it was reported that one of the unidentified items may have been a $12 balloon owned by a hobby club in Illinois.
According to Aviation Week, as a small, globe-trotting balloon that was declared “missing in action” by an Illinois-based hobbyist club on February 15.
According to the source, the club’s balloon, described as a “silver-coated, party-style, “pico balloon,” was last seen on February 10 at 38,910 feet off the west coast of Alaska.
On the same day, Biden ordered an F-22 fighter plane to strike down an item in that region at a similar height.
The descriptions of all three unexplained objects that were shot down following the Chinese spy balloon “fit the forms, heights, and payloads of the little pico balloons, which can normally be bought for $12-180 apiece, depending on the kind,” according to the source.
The military has admitted that it shot down each item with an AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. The average price of a missile is $400,000.
One target needed two missiles after the first one missed, costing more than $1,600,000 to take down all three targets.
The active labor and fuel expenses for the F-22s and other aircraft used in the shoot-downs are not included in those expenditures. According to Popular Mechanics, F-22s’ hourly operating costs are $85,325.
Recovery efforts, which have been going on for days in three distinct places, are also not included in the expenditures.
Social media users made fun of the Biden administration for spending so much money to take down what could as well have been hobby balloons.
Biden is offering strong deterrent for any high school scientific clubs that may want to invade America, said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in a tweet.
To be fair, Biden is providing is powerful deterrence for any high school science clubs that might try to invade America…. https://t.co/kk5NNMtDCE
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) February 16, 2023
And Donald Trump Jr. tweeted: “Biden destroyed a $400K sidewinder missile used in some kids’ science project! While he didn’t explicitly address this issue, Biden acknowledged in his speech today that the balloons they took down were probably just being used for “research or fun.”
Biden shot down some kids’ science project with a $400k sidewinder missile! Btw Biden admitted in his speech today, while not acknowledging this situation directly, that the balloons they shot down were likely just being used for “research or recreation” https://t.co/84yZbFZ924
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 16, 2023
The “Great Balloon Panic of 2023,” was parodied by former Michigan Representative Peter Meijer (R-MI).
He tweeted, “RIP to the $80 ham radio transmitter balloon from the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade, probably killed by friendly fire by a $143,000,000 USAF F-22 shooting a $485,000 AIM-9X Sidewinder missile during the Great Balloon Panic of 2023.
RIP to the Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade’s ~$80 ham radio transmitter balloon, likely the victim of friendly fire by a $143,000,000 USAF F-22 firing a $485,000 AIM-9X Sidewinder missile during the Great Balloon Panic of 2023. https://t.co/4gyy91I1Jv
— Peter Meijer (@RepMeijer) February 17, 2023
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