Merry Christmas 2014 from Obama to you... $3,672,798

Caution!

The info below may very well be mind blowing and cause sudden increase in BP.


Ok. I pay my "fair share" in taxes and now have a much better understanding of where some of it went. Yours too!

Judicial Watch announced today it obtained records from the U.S. Department of the Air Force revealing that the Obama family’s 2014 Christmas vacation to Honolulu, Hawaii, cost taxpayers $3,672,798 in flight expenses alone. Christmas in Hawaii is an annual tradition for the family and their most recent visit, from December 19, 2014, to January 4, 2015, marked their seventh Hawaiianvacation. The documents came from the Department of the Air Force in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on January 5, 2015. Costs for the trip to Hawaii, to the West Coast, and to Martha’s Vineyard last year, cost nearly $3 million alone in transportation.

According to the documents, the Obama’s spent 17.8 hours in the air round-trip at $206,337.00 per hour, bringing the total cost to taxpayers to $3,672,798.60.

Merry Christmas Taxpayers


Ho-ho-hope you were sitting down when you read this...

a reply to: Ultralight




www.ourmidland.com...

During Bush’s two terms, the cost of operating Air Force One ranged from $56,800 to $68,000 an hour. Bush used Air Force One 77 times to go to his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Using the low end cost of $56,800, Media Matters calculated that each trip to Crawford cost taxpayers $259,687, and $20 million total for Bush’s ranch flights.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

a reply to: Ultralight

I can't think of anything more embarrassing than a person that makes excuses (especially at this point in this clown's career) for the lying idiot and his traitorous entourage.

They need to be chained in Guantanamo.

Why couldn't it have been that plane that disappeared?
So is it safe to assume that the 7 trips combined cost 21million in travel?
Probably could have used that money elsewhere

a reply to: grey580

Is anyone on the left actually capable of dealing with the present?

You damn sure were when a conservative was president.

a reply to: FalcoFan

It is about context, the president using air force one and it's extraordinary cost is nothing new or exclusive to barry.

I know people don't like when people bring up that he is not doing things that no one else has done before but that is the case.

a reply to: Ultralight

And how much did George Bush spend on travel when he was President?

How much of this figure is about security and military aircraft escorts, which would not be an avoidable cost? I suppose what I am wondering, is what makes this any different to the costs associated with any presidential or prime ministerial vacation?

a reply to: FalcoFan

Is anyone on the left actually capable of dealing with the present?

Yes!

Presently, there are some right-wingers trying to turn Obama's travel expenses into a scandal despite the fact that they're par for the course. This whole shtick about "can't we deal with the present" is a deflection; an attempt to mitigate the obvious hypocrisy that lies in criticizing Obama for things that were fine with the GOP when Bush was in office.

a reply to: grey580

For me, I dont get caught up in the so and so did it too argument, frankly that obfuscates the reality that somehow equal citizens, holding elected office, somehow deserve to have this type of expense account at their fellow citizens expense.

I am sure that all parties, in either political party are over joyed at all of the bickering about how this Democrat, or that Republican did it too...the fact is NOBODY should be doing it at all!

It causes me a lot of grief realizing that everyone is content to let the bipartisan parade/charade keep marching on...so much more fun to hate and bash with infinite sources of crap perpetrated by both parties in the past to call upon for citations, why heck, we could all be endlessly entrenched in "in-fighting amongst ourselves forever.

a reply to: Sremmos80

Exactly. Saying how much the president spent on a vacation doesn't mean much unless you have something to COMPARE it to... Fortunately, we do. It only makes sense to compare it to the previous president, who made SEVEN trips to Africa, all on the taxpayers.

The right has been crying about Obama's travel expenditures since he became president. I doubt it will stop now. But Bush was the most expensive vacationer in history.

Another Right Wing Slander Debunked

The Traveling President

a reply to: theantediluvian

I wasn't fond of The second bush-and frankly thought that he was a pr..k-and didn't hold back on my views or ever was like "clinton did it".

I understand that it is expensive to move the president around-but I think that future presidents should only be able to spend their personal vacations in the U.S. Same with congress.

Those tax dollars need to be spent in the same country that they were snatched from the citizens.

Dealing with the present is the only effective means of making actual changes-going back and forth like he did it-he did it doesn't solve anything.

a reply to: BlueJacket

I don't think it's fair to characterize the expense of Presidents travelling for something like a vacation as "[having] this type of expense account." The President requires security because of his office. That's just the way it is. So should the President be barred from leaving the White House?

What's more concerning to me is the expense of Presidents travelling for the purposes of campaigning for members of their parties. Perhaps for those sorts of trips, the parties should foot all or part of the bill?

a reply to: FalcoFan

I understand that it is expensive to move the president around-but I think that future presidents should only be able to spend their personal vacations in the U.S. Same with congress.

Those tax dollars need to be spent in the same country that they were snatched from the citizens.

Hawaii is in the US. It became the 50th state in 1959.

a reply to: grey580

Did George also charge 2 big, black Canadian made campaign buses to the taxpayer? No! Had he, George would have stimulated the economy of his own country by contracting 100% American made....

Where are those buses now, hmmm????

a reply to: theantediluvian

I appreciate your stance, but my point is that the days of lavishly lived dignitaries should of moved on with the 20th century. I am more perplexed by peoples insistence of arguing over what I consider an excess. Do I want the this or any President to be corralled at the White House? Of course not, that Hawaii trip sounds like the kind of thing we taxpayers would want our Chief Executive to do with his direct family as a perk of doing a terribly difficult job, same with Bush and Texas, Clinton and (where the hell did they go?) and all the Kennebunkport trips for Bush Sr.

I am going to say that indirect family trips and lavish hotel stays in China (as an example) needs to be bought on their own dime, IE the rest of the family can utilize some of that Presidential pay for their personal extras like the rest of us. They ALL take way too much advantage of the system in my opinion. WAY TOO MUCH

Maybe if we made it less enticing and celebrity filled people might do the job for the right reasons and keep their eye on the ball. I know Im dreaming and probably drifting the thread a tad, so Ill bow out.

a reply to: FalcoFan

Chained and the fleas of 1000 camels infesting his nether-regions.

So sorry for that visual.

a reply to: Ultralight

Snopes

The shell for the new bus was produced by Prevost, a motor coach manufacturer based in Quebec. This heavy-duty shell was then customized by Hemphill Brothers Coach Co., which is based in Nashville, Tennessee, then assembled into a completed motor coach by that same company.
...

A second bus — also costing $1.1 million — was put together at the same time. Plans for the second coach include using it for the eventual Republican presidential nominee.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said of the decision to purchase a Prevost shell for the Presidential bus that "The vehicle had to support the weight of security and communication equipment that we had. Our understanding was that was the only model that could do it."

Would you like to keep moving those goalposts? Is this about Obama's vacations, his bus or the price of his underwear?

originally posted by: BlueJacket
I am sure that all parties, in either political party are over joyed at all of the bickering about how this Democrat, or that Republican did it too...the fact is NOBODY should be doing it at all!

100% agree. And people should talk about THAT, not how bad this president is for doing what presidents before him have done.

a reply to: theantediluvian

You mean kinda-sorta like when Madame Speaker Nancy-pants flew over to Syria in 2007 and met with Bahar al-Assad screaming about how it is the duty of Congress to get involved in foreign matters such as war prevention???

TREASON!!

a reply to: Ultralight

And now, you've jumped the goalposts altogether to talk about Nancy Pelosi? Sheesh! Stay on topic in your own thread.