I find very disturbing that the White House is not willing to reveal the costs of this excursion. Of course, the pressures of the job are great, and the president sure deserves a respite - however, the expenses of this trip (five helicopters, dozens of WH salaried workers doing overtime, cars moved to New York, Secret Service, other security measures, other logistics, then the deployment on the NY streets of hundred of cops, action which must be re-imbursed by the WH) sure goes significantly beyond $25.000 - and this in times of dire economics, with millions of people unemployed, with millions of families that live on $40 a week, and with no sign of relief anywhere in sight.
Much fuss and deservedly so, is around the British MPs' expenses accounts (cleaning a moat, a fancy bra or tampons for a mistress, refurbishing a windvane, sausages, onions & ale for the honorables, etc.) but those expenses are minuscule in comparison with mister Obama's Pharaonic-type of leisure expenses.
Very expensive folly as this act was, the arrogant witholding of the numbers is just adding insult to injury.
The US is not Haiti, US is a democracy, and not who-knows-what despotic polity whose coffers are also the ruler's pockets -
Comments (24)
I would like to know just what was his carbon footprint was for this trip ?
I agree with you, but............The United States of American is a REPUBLIC, not a democracy.
What arrogance this narcissist has! People are losing their homes (my neighbors are being foreclosed on), out of work, can't buy food, and this couple goes out for a night on the town. Oh, sure, everyone has to cut back...except this jerk! Get him out of the White House! He's a FRAUD.
Are you joking?!?
Is this such a big deal that you need to ruminate over it?
Our president is a very busy and stressed individual, who has the country, the world on his shoulders.
Can he not have a night out in New York with his wife?
ANYONE who is concerned about the money spent, is just splitting hairs. I dont care if Dick Cheney was our president, I wouldn't call him out for taking a break now and then to be a normal person and a good husband.
Besides you know that the costs of security with the secret service is a necessary reality.
Maybe if members of YOUR party weren't so racist, and bigotist, and hateful, maybe we americans wouldnt have to pay so much for his security. Maybe if YOUR party hadn't drummed up lies and distortions regarding a whole host of radical nutjob conspiracies, and falsehoods to feed red meat to the Right, perhaps we wouldn't have to protect OUR president with so much security.
Actionsauce, lol the President is busy? I am sorry, he did not know what his job description was when he campaigned for office? He thought this was all about him? Really?
Actionsauce, let me ask you D.C. doesn't have decent diners ? And for your info, the price for tax payers was not $24k it was more like $250k
Action do you take two helicopters and a jet on a date? Really?
Barry and Michelle relate to the average american?
Pulease.
Actionsauce, first of all...what makes you think I'm a Republican, since you repeatedly stated "YOUR" party? And just what makes you "assume" that I'm a racist and a bigot? (although you spelled it wrong) Just because I don't like Obama, right away I'm a racist? That's all you liberals can do...look at Jeanne G's statement. I wouldn't care if he was green, purple, or blue. Nuff said...
My good friends all throughout grammar and high school were black, and one of my best friends right now is black. Pulease....
The point is...Obummer tells us we need to cut back, and he goes and splurges. They both make me sick. The royal couple, or so they think. No class whatsoever, just a fraud, I could go on and on.
He will NEVER be MY president. No experience, no resume, no clue. You'll all be sorry. (You should be NOW!)
Katie,
I did not call you a racist.
But your words say enough.
I quote: "He will never be my president."
That says alot about how wise and openminded you are.
And yes you are a republican.
Dont deny it.
Where was your outrage when Bush flew off to Crawford DOZENS and DOZENS of times, at a cost of 5 MILLION dollars each way???
actionsauce: I am a Libertarian. And he still will never be my president. He is destroying America. Again, liberals are quick to call those of us who do not like that thing in the White House racists. What else is new?
To all of you partisans...the entire government is guilty of destroying us. And they WANT us to fight and argue amongst ourselves. I never said I was happy about the things Bush did either.
Get it?
At the same time I was watching the prez and his old lady laughing and bouncing their way to a date night in New York I was reading a letter from my nephew who has finished AIT and will be going to that hellhole not worth a drop of American blood.
How the prez can be yukking it up when he has people stuck in a horrible land with terrible weather and no real Constitutional mandate keeping them there is beyond my comprehension.
They look to you as the commander in chief because that's what they are told. A wartime commander should not spend his days laughing and his nights partying while our troops are bleeding and dying on foreign soil. A wartime commander should not be spending so much time partying.
A wartime commander needs to be involved in victory or exit, not pretending everything is funny.
There's a reason Steve Kroft asked if he was "punch drunk".
Or is he just drunk?
He apparently has never of, nor understands the term, "What's good for the Goose is good for the Gander"!
Look, the taxpayer has picked up the tab for every presidential trip to Kennebunkport, Camp David, the Bush ranch (aka the "Western White House"), Hilton Head (Bill's "Renaissance weekends"), Jackson Hole, the Reagan Ranch, etc, etc, etc, for the last two decades (and longer). While I agree that this little jaunt seems insensitive, its hardly unprecedented and isn't something to be condemned as harshly as I see here. Give the guy a break - he's gone gray overnight. The Obama's deserve the occasional stress relief.
I can understand needing some relief and a date night but not in a plane to a different State; that is for people who are filthy rich.Maybe our country is not as bad off as they are portraying or maybe like with other things, he does not have to follow the same standards as anyone else nor do much of his appointees(not paying taxes, not accounting for sending a jet through New York city with no warning,associating yourself with people who damned our country,associated yourself with people who tried to bomb our country,calling the CIA liars, not presenting birth certificates)...what normal people get away with these things??
What happened to the investigation into the Soteros spending taxpayer dollars for the nightly "Galas" in the White House by an "independent watchdog agency"? It was widely publicized at the beginning, but now, there is no sign of it anywhere. did the investigator have a fatal "heart attack"? Or was perhaps promoted to a high-paying position in the Sotero Regime?
Give the guy a break? That's what he's been getting from the start.
Forgetting to act according to protocol when the National Anthem was played, no big deal, give the guy a break. He forgot where he put his birth certificate? Post something on the web and give the guy a break.
He votes for a bailout without reading it? no big deal, give the guy a break.
He signs a bill into law without reading it?no big deal, give the guy a break. He sends AF1 on a photo shoot? no big deal, give the guy a break.
He goes out laughing and flies to another city for a date? no big deal, give the guy a break.
Yeah no big deal, give the guy a break.
Guess what? I am sick of the guy getting a break. He needs to act like he's a man with responsibility instead of the man with the most White House parties and the biggest idiot for a spokesman.
If we are really out of money as he has claimed on TV, then he's being an irresponsible individual.
Give him a break?
He's broke, and we are too thanks to him.
He needs a permanent vacation and we need a real man, a real leader, a real American in that place instead of him.
He can take a break, he can go to Hawaii and stay there. We don't need him, the last 100+ days shows we can actually survive with no leadership at all in any way shape or form.
He has been a big fat zero when it comes to responsible leadership. We would be better off if he were to take up fishing instead.At least then our grandchildren would not have so many billions of dollars in interest payments we accrued by giving the guy a break.
I know one thing for sure... He sure does like Air Force One !!!
Just like a new Caddie...
I did not read the other comments, so I may be stepping into a wasp's nest ... ?
From what I heard in the media, Obama paid out of pocket for the personal expenses. I am sure he would have preferred to be able to drive in a small car for a couple of hours to NY, have a nice outing, and drive home.
All the airplane and security expenses involved were not luxuries aimed at enhancing their enjoyment of their evening. These things were indeed costly, but the Obamas had no choice about them.
I think the only alternative would be to forbid the President to leave the White House, and forbid him to have any personal outings, lest the "public" raise an outcry.
I don't think I am ready to support such restrictions on Obama ...
Hi Stacey, no wasps here...Well, I'm a WASP but I don't sting. I just ask thorny questions. I wasn't referring to their "date night" although I am certain there are fine Restaurants in DC, the NY trip was overboard for certain.
What I was talking about are the Nightly Parties at the White House, with top notch Headliner Performers to entertain the Soteros and the ACORN crooks et al. A Sotero minion said that the "Obama's" lived this way in Illinois, and intended to do so in DC. On OUR tax dollars. There was an investigation into just how MUCH of OUR MONEY WAS BEING SPENT that just faded away. Interesting, and typical of this Socialist regime.
Apparently every Wednesday night is party night...
mjdabrow, Ah, I was mislead then.
No, your right on target my friend!
Considering the mess he's put us in, and the fact that almost every word he utters is a lie. He should show a little restraint in his partying, when millions are out of work, and they and hundreds of thousnads of other folks are being Foreclosed upon because HE gabe hundreds of billions of $ to his pals and the Banksters. ACORN didn't rate a dime, they aren't a company, and they hd millions to donate to B. Soteros campaign just months before. NOW he's paying THEM to do the CENSUS! That's a travesty. No truth will come from ACORN doing the CENSUS.
I couldn't agree with you more, and unfortunately it will only get worse I'm afraid.
That my friend is an unfortunate truth. Wait until he declares Martial Law. He has stated the Constitution is getting in his way and NEEDS to be modified, or done away with. A very BAD plan.