WOW! Biden spends over $1,000,000.00 in 2 nights at hotel.

LONDON: $459,388.65
www.weeklystandard.com...

PARIS: $585,000.50
www.weeklystandard.com...

WTH!!!

Our Premier in AB spent 1,400$ on a flight and she was almost hung in the public square and it was front page news for 3 days and she paid it back to the Taxpayer.

Does no one in the US care?

reply to post by CALGARIAN


Didn't you hear? The United States has become a Monarchy!!!! Oh yea! The left is wanting Hillary Clinton in 2016 and the right is leaning toward Jeb Bush!!

Sucks that the Queen spends WAY less than our elevated ones in Washington DC........

The rooms were $500/night.

The accompanying document justifying the "sole source" contract notes that the vice president's group required "approximately 136 hotel rooms for 893 room nights." Based on these figures and the total contract price, each hotel room at the five star hotel cost the U.S. government about $500 per night.

The leaders of the one of the largest countries in the world that has active (or active yet undisclosed) wars going on need to ride with a lot of security, teams of analysts, strategists, etc.

Unless you can break down why this money was wasted on having those people there, or that the rooms weren't actually occupied, I don't know what you can really oppose on the matter.

From what I can see, the Paris trip has no accompanying information with it.

reply to post by boncho


Do you have a link to back up the information you posted from that site?

I haven't seen that info and would prefer to see where it came from than just take it for face value....

I also believe that it is required that when posting off site content that you link to where you got that information from..

reply to post by CALGARIAN


Never.

Never, never, never, take anything from the mini bar.

And if you do, don't order those "adult" movies.

Both will kill a hotel bill.

Just sayin'

Using the 136 rooms number from the London trip, that works out to be approximately $4301 per room, which is pretty damn exorbitant. The only thing that I could see as potentially feeding into those bills would be if the trips were not scheduled long in advance. I would guess that a number of rooms above, in the section of, and below the VP were probably required to be free of others residents of the hotel by Secret Service. If that meant cancellation, I could see the hotels stacking in penalties to compensate for having to drop reservations in order to suit the VP's needs. Still, it's pretty damn excessive if it were for a couple night stay. However, the contract on the first one is for 893 nights not 1 or 2 so what these contracts could be are contracts for current stays and future stays over the next 4 years. If that's the case, then it's $114,847 in annualized expenses or $844 per room. Not quite as bad because really, I don't expect the VP to stay in an Euro version of Motel 6. I did that equivalent and was not fond of the midnight cockroaches in London or the guys peeing on the hotel wall in Paris.

So yeah, I care. I actually look at our government's actual budgetary data from the source as a hobby because I want to know why our spending is so whacked. It's just these bills could very well be 4 year contracts based on one of the bills' wording.

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by CALGARIAN

 

Never.

Never, never, never, take anything from the mini bar.

And if you do, don't order those "adult" movies.

Both will kill a hotel bill.

Just sayin'

speaking from experience??

Originally posted by seeker1963
reply to post by boncho

 

Do you have a link to back up the information you posted from that site?

I haven't seen that info and would prefer to see where it came from than just take it for face value....

I also believe that it is required that when posting off site content that you link to where you got that information from..

edit on 22-3-2013 by seeker1963 because: (no reason given)

The links are actually in the article in the blue text. I usually ignoring colored text like that due to traumatic pop up experiences, too:

www.fbo.gov...
www.fbo.gov...

Originally posted by rangersdad

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by CALGARIAN

 

Never.

Never, never, never, take anything from the mini bar.

And if you do, don't order those "adult" movies.

Both will kill a hotel bill.

Just sayin'

speaking from experience??

Yep.

Originally posted by seeker1963
reply to post by boncho

 

Do you have a link to back up the information you posted from that site?

I haven't seen that info and would prefer to see where it came from than just take it for face value....

I also believe that it is required that when posting off site content that you link to where you got that information from..

edit on 22-3-2013 by seeker1963 because: (no reason given)

It was linked in the OP article. I assumed everyone read it...

893 room nights were booked.

Originally posted by CALGARIAN
LONDON: $459,388.65
www.weeklystandard.com...

PARIS: $585,000.50
www.weeklystandard.com...

WTH!!!

Our Premier in AB spent 1,400$ on a flight and she was almost hung in the public square and it was front page news for 3 days and she paid it back to the Taxpayer.

Does no one in the US care?

They really care about the deficit don't they?

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by CALGARIAN

 

Never.

Never, never, never, take anything from the mini bar.

And if you do, don't order those "adult" movies.

Both will kill a hotel bill.

Just sayin'

$10 bags of pistachios and $20 for some porn...

I wonder how many nuts and movies Biden watched in 2 days?

PEace

Livin' large on a blank check...woo-hoo!

Must be nice!...


wtf...$1,000,000.00 for 2 nights worth of motels...$1,000,000.00 for a day of Golf with Tiger Hood...

they act just like this...

I appreciate the fact it has been mentioned about this being the Vice President and the fact that, especially these days, anyone in the National Command Authority travels with a full entourage giving thought to our war time status. It's hardly noticed back here, I know..but you see how they travel. I don't fault that so much. There are probably 10's of thousands of nutcases out there who would happily overrun small security to get a high US official. That simply can't ever ever ever happen. So they have the footprint of Godzilla. (crunch goes the budget, too)

MY problem with this is just WHY Joe had to go there, aside from just wanting to bask in the light for awhile and be seen doing Presidential type things occasionally. After all, 'Ol Joe has joked about 2016. (Let's hope it remains a joke)

Joe Biden in Paris to reaffirm US support of France in Mali

He could have sent a 'thank you, we're with ya!' note. Perhaps teleconferencing? Has he ever heard of it? Perhaps not. Those situation room P.R. photos are losing their impact. It would have saved a million dollars though, since this was Joe Biden travelling. No one else. Everyone that came is simply assigned to go where he goes.

I'd imagine a million would have paid for a few White House tours for the school kids. (what many of them are). Instead, it seems he finds it more important to BE seen by the people. Now that's pretty crappy given how they're telling us daily how cuts are just something we have to deal with.

To thy own self be true, 'Ol Joe.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


You bring up some points that I totally agree with and find so irritating. With all the fiscal cliff crap, the sequester, and the incessant in-fighting in regards to the deficit, the government really should be scaling back on expenditures like this for when a physical US presence is really needed. Biden's presence at the Pope's inauguration--that has more stock to it then re-affirming support from France because it was highly televised and heavily reported. If they know that a trip to London or Paris is going to cost an exorbitant amount of money, then they should be relying on those technologies that we do have that make a trip like that unnecessary. As it is, it's just very expensive photo ops that may not even be covered by the news media. I want to shake my fist at them all and remind them that their crap adds up. It's kind of like going to the grocery store and grabbing stuff that is on sale. All that stuff still adds up fast at the check out.

reply to post by WhiteAlice

I agree on the Pope. I don't think Pelosi or lesser members of Congress needed to be there. Pay their own way as private citizens when they retire or go without entourage is my attitude for them but it was a major international State function that our top people needed to be there for if they could.

You know what? I was thinking, and I know I've read about the technology in Wired or a similar magazine. However, they can just about make the full visual effect of the Star Trek "Holodeck" in terms of Audi/Video virtual reality. Nothing we'll see at Best Buy for a decade or so perhaps....but spend a million making a room of the White House into one of those.

Spend once, save many?

So how many White House Tours would that have been?

80 grand a week?

12 weeks worth of White House tours for the kids?

reply to post by beezzer

And if you do, don't order those "adult" movies.

Bugs Bunny cartoons are that expensive?

Who knew.

God forbid Biden and his entourage stay in a 4 star hotel. You think they could have negotiated a better group rate for the VP. My guess is that no one even tried. Not their money you know.

Certainly far more than the cost of the Easter Egg roll on the White House lawn.

Originally posted by beezzer
reply to post by CALGARIAN

 

Never.

Never, never, never, take anything from the mini bar.

And if you do, don't order those "adult" movies.

Both will kill a hotel bill.

Just sayin'

Word.

I just roll a big old cooler full of ice and beer...maybe a few boxes of wine to my room. Yeah, I get extra fancy when I buy the Black Box brand.

Oh, and don't pay for the WiFi either.

If you can, wake up early and try and ambush the cleaning lady's cart. Usually at a nice place they have decent stuff, and you can snag more towels (they never leave me enough).

Just don't take stuff like the alarm clock, TV, paintings, lampshades and blankets home with you. Those things actually belong to the hotel.