Nile Gardiner @ The Telegraph:
$16.4 trillion – that’s the latest figure for America’s massive national debt. Nearly $6 trillion of this debt was racked up in the first term of the Obama presidency – a 50 percent increase. It is horrifying to imagine what the debt will be when Obama leaves the White House in 2016, unless Congress has the willpower to stand in the way.
Meanwhile, as the world’s superpower is literally drowning in debt, President Obama is basking in the warmth of the beaches of Hawaii, at an exclusive resort way beyond the financial reach of most Americans. The president pays the cost of his own family’s accommodations, but there are a large number of associated costs which are paid from the public purse.
What is the actual cost of Obama’s lavish vacation to the American taxpayer? A staggering $7 million, according to veteran White House reporter Keith Koffler, who wrote in his blog earlier this week:
In a move that is rich in irony, President Obama agreed Tuesday night to sign an emergency deficit reduction bill that does almost nothing to rein in spending and then jetted out to Hawaii to resume his vacation at an extra cost of more than $3 million to taxpayers.
The price tag is in addition to more than $4 million that is already being spent on the Obamas’ Hawaii idyll, bringing the total cost of the excursion to well over $7 million.
The added cost was incurred because by the time the Obamas return from Hawaii – whenever that is – the president will have used Air Force One to travel to Honolulu and back twice.
The White House doesn’t like to publish the costs of presidential vacations, but Koffler has done the sums:
Air Force One is known to cost about $180,000 an hour to fly. Based on an estimated 18 hours roundtrip flying time for the jet between Washington and Honolulu, the travel cost alone of Obama’s decision to return to Hawaii amounts to around $3.24 million. And that doesn’t include the price tag for the massive security operation required to move the president or the cost of the cargo plane that follows Air Force One around.
As Koffler notes, President Obama could easily have saved taxpayers a good deal of money:
The Obamas could have saved taxpayers millions by returning from Hawaii together after Christmas and then resuming their vacation at one of the many ritzy resorts that lie outside of Washington. If the beach is a must, even a trip to Florida would have been far less expensive.
Or they could have simply stayed at the White House or Camp David, each a luxurious government-run installation, billing taxpayers a relative pittance.
According to Koffler, “the total cost to taxpayers of Obama’s vacations to Hawaii since becoming president is likely in excess of $20 million, and possibly much, much more.”
And Obama said, “Let them eat cake!”
Of course it is…and so were all their ‘other’ vacations in the millions….as much an insult….but, he’s such a nice man…(src)
Funny, Ofraud goes on and on about how “he” can pay “a little” more in taxes….HELL…of course he can…he gets just about EVERYTHING on the TAXPAYERS DIME so, since he’s not paying for his home, his clothes, his GAS…his FOOD..HIS VACATIONS…etc etc…
HELL he SHOULD be able to kick in a ‘FEW MORE BUCKS IN TAXES’….in fact A LOT more in taxes….
A modern-day president and his family can’t travel without incurring such expenses. They can’t fly on a commercial airline. They can’t book standard rooms in a standard hotel. They can’t exit the security bubble that they’re compelled to live within, and just leave it behind for an hour or a day or a week.
What are they supposed to do? Remain for 8 years inside the White House compound?
@Greg:
Remember how you liberals whined each time President Bush would go to his ranch in Texas? Nevermind that once all the security/communications systems were set up at Prairie Chappel, they didn’t have to be paid for again for 8 years.
Instead, Obama chooses to vacation in various places (Martha’s Vineyard/Hawaii) and everytime the entire process of security/communications has to be rebuilt.
You liberals really do love to show your hyprocracy, don’t you?
It’s amusing that people think Obama might actually care that he is spending other peoples money….Hell it’s what European Socialists do…He and Moochelle are going to ride this gravy train for all it is worth and you peasants can just suck it up and keep paying the bill…
Doesn’t “social justice” just make ya feel all warm and fuzzy inside when your springing for it?
@Greg:
No, no one expects him and his family not to take a vacation. But how about taking one in the contiguous United States, or Camp David or Myrtle Beach, or Disney World, or Miami Beach. There are many conclaves in the US that are protected and secluded that would not be even a quarter of the cost as the Hawaii trips where he treats his entire entourage of “family”. We expect him to be prudent. When he pushes his Obamacare on us, he should also have to be included in it. The US Gov’t is out of control.
@retire05, #4:
I remember complaints about the amount of time President George W. Bush spent away from Washington on vacation. It finally came to a total of 1,020 days over his 8 years in office. That works out to over 4 months per year. No doubt he commuted back and forth by rental car, to keep taxpayer costs down.
I am disabled and haven’t been on a vacation in 9 years. Too bad this man and his family didnt pay for everything I guarantee their vacations to Hawaii wouldn’t exist!!!
He wasn’t put in the White House to take vacations, he was put there to run the country (even though he is running it into the ground) I can’t afford to take a vacation and haven’t taken one in years. The country is paying him to run the country, not to go on vacation. If u cant afford it, don’t do it. BUT I DIDN’T VOTE FOR HIM!!!
@Greg:
You just don’t get it, do you, Greggie?
Once all the security systems and communication systems were built at Prarie Chappel, they did not have to be rebuilt for another 8 years. The flight, on AF1, costs a lot less between Andrews AFB and Fort Hood than it does between Andrews AFB and Honolulu. Track the miles if you don’t believe me. And since The Won never stays in the same place twice, all the security/communications systems have to be RE-built every time he takes a vacation.
Also, President Bush, and First Lady Laura, traveled together. No separate planes for her, or their dog, spending their vacation at a place THEY paid for, not the American taxpayer.
I don’t have a problem with Obama taking a vacation, although I would be interested in how many days he has spent on vacation since he took office. Perhaps you would like to provide that information for me? And how many times has Obama hit the links compared to President Bush? Let’s see; I think the number is Bush; 27 and Obama; 110.
And what about their partying? In the first year of office, Obama had a party at the White House once every three days, according to the New York Times. Yeah, that’s sharing the pain and having some skin in the game, isn’t it? And those state dinners with all that wagu beef? Yep, the cost of those have DOUBLED under the Obama regime.
Obama likes to think of himself as either Lincoln or FDR. Ooops; FDR never vacationed in some tony spot except the one he owned, and his wife wore clothes off the rack because other Americans were suffering, when she was not in a uniform like so many Americans.
So please, there is no comparison between how the Bush’s vacationed and the massive amounts of money spent by Obama and Michelle Antoinette.
OOT, this administration doesn’t count days/weekends spent at Camp David as vacation days, although the Bush administration did; does not count as vacation days any trip that includes at least ONE political stop, like the trip to Florida after the oil spill. Nothing like stacking the books for useful idiots like you.
@Greg:
Greg. obama could gun down your entire family, foreclose on your house and detain you indefinitely and you would still defend this fraud. Read alinksky, bill ayers and you will find he is going page by page. Look at castro, hitler, and chavez and you will see barry soetoro fits in neatly with them. This man hates the United States, the Constitution and what it stands for and is seeking revenge from the caucasians of this country. Ironic though he is 1/2 white and 1/2 arab – not really black. – and his arab side along with the blacks in Africa sold their own people. It wasn’t the whites. Yes whites did buy black slaves but it was the black/arabs that sold them.
Seems like our VP, the man who negotiated the “fiscal cliff” deal, being considered the sharpest tack in the box although he failed his bar exam 11 times, is jetting off to the Virgin Islands. Seems Old Joe want to know what all the fuss is over 72 of them (virgins).
@retire05: Hyprocracy seems to be a central defining characteristic of the disorder