Posted on 05/08/2012 6:04:11 PM PDT by Steve Peacock
Excluding the cost of Colombian prostitutes for U.S. Secret Service agents, U.S. Trade & Aid Monitor has discovered that hotel rooms and rental vehicles alone for President Obama's scandal-plagued trip to Colombia cost taxpayers nearly $1 million.
Slated for inclusion in the presidential entourage had been "the Secretary of State, several other Cabinet members, and at least one CODEL," or congressional delegation, according to U.S. Department of State planning documents that the Monitor has obtained.
The trip called for the rental of 1,046 hotel rooms at 13 separate establishments in Cartegena, Colombia, where the sixth annual Summit of the Americas took place.
Out of that total, 258 rooms, including the Presidential Suite, were located at the Hilton Cartegena. The U.S. Embassy likewise rented two conference rooms at the Hilton, though it's unclear why it rented those units -- if the document is accurate -- for "20 days," since the Summit began April 13 and ended April 15.
The Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition, or JOFOC, document said the total number of rooms rented at the hotels -- including the Hotel Caribe, where Secret Service agents allegedly patronized hookers -- was equvalent to a period of "1,877 room nights." Total cost of the rentals was exactly$640,179.1o, the JOFOC document said.
The cost of vehicle rental services -- which included a combination of 163 "sedans, vans, minivans, buses, minibuses, SUVs, and trucks" for use by "over 1,300 hundred visitors/guests" -- was $350,533.95. "As an added value, vehicle rental includes the following: Coolers, water, ice, umbrellas, uniforms, and communication media (cell phone) for each driver," according to the JOFOC.
The Monitor will post the documents in approximately 24 hours.
How do these thieving devoids sleep at night?
US presidents...up until the 1950s...typically didn’t travel overseas. If you look at the circus-like environment that exists today...this has become silly.
Nothing too good for the King.
Damn the expenses, full spending ahead!
Hitlery’s bar bill had to go a cool half mill alone.....
I think Teddy Roosevelt was the first President to leave the US during his Presidency, to pay a visit to Panama where the canal was under construction.
Maybe because We the People still continue to let them....
What benefit to the USA was achieved from this trip?
On a Benefit to Cost ratio, was it a number greater than 1 ?
These trips should be a budget item with the estimated benefit/cost calculated by an independent accounting firm.
BTW, what was the Carbon Foot Print for the entire round trip?
Just what was the purpose of the trip anyway?
Other than scouting out future vacation spots for the wookie?
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