Noonin,
BCan and many others know this side of the equation far better than I,... and if they sat down and 'splained it to you for 5 minutes, you'd get it. Unfortunately, I cannot remember many of the nuances of the budget side of it that make the decision invalid.
However, I do know that most General-officers (with a few notable exceptions such as Lt Gen Gorenc and Brig Gen Jannitto) know nothing of how or why airshows work, and what they do for the Air Force.
I'm willing to bet there are more than a few congressional districts that will be complaining about the lack of AF jet team presence at their show this year. I know of one already.
You have to spend money to make money. Although the AF isn't into it to "make $$$", the AF certainly does "make 'money' " at many airshows.
And at $55,000/hr, why did the AF decide to keep the F-22 demo team vice the other ones? I'm referring to the demo teams that operate aircraft whose cost per hour is less than half the F-22's (F-15E, F-16, A-10... ).