Posted on 08/05/2010 9:14:10 AM PDT by kristinn
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters yesterday, in answer to a query about First Lady Michelle Obama's Spanish vacation where she is protected by 70 Secret Service agents, 250 Spanish law enforcement officers, will meet with Spain's king and queen and is staying at a luxury hotel where she has reserved 60 rooms, that it is none of the American people's business because she is a "private citizen."
Lynn Sweet reported at the Chicago Sun-Times that Gibbs was asked about "the appearance" of Obama's vacation and that Gibbs blew it off by asserting Michelle Obama is a "private citizen":
"The first lady is on a private trip. She is a private citizen and is the mother of a daughter on a private trip. And I think I'd leave it at that," Gibbs said.
Sweet goes on to note that this is Michelle Obama's eighth scheduled vacation in the first nine months of 2010:
First ladies often go on vacations, with and without the president. An issue for Mrs. Obama may be how many: New York in March; Chicago, over Memorial Day; Los Angeles in June; Camp David -- sort of an extension of the White House -- in July; Maine in July, to highlight Acadia National Park, and now Spain. Mrs. Obama is glamorizing Spain's coastal resorts before her Aug. 14 first family weekend visit to Florida's Gulf Coast, to encourage tourists scared away by the oil spill. Starting Aug. 19, the Obamas will spend 10 days in Martha's Vineyard.
Last year, Michelle Obama vacationed in Paris and London, Martha's Vineyard, Hawaii, and Chicago, with a working vacation in Copenhagen lobbying for Chicago's failed bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics. There was also the infamous 'date night' in New York City.
With America mired in the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and Obama's policies exacerbating the crisis rather than fixing it, Barack and Michelle Obama live their lives like billionaires, even though the president's salary is $400,000 per year and the Obamas are only worth a few million dollars thanks to book sales.
Barack Obama has played over 40 rounds of golf in the 19 months of his presidency in addition to his numerous luxury vacations.
Michelle Obama routinely wears outfits that, from her $800 shoes to her $5000 earrings and $300 tote bags, are impossible for the average working or unemployed woman to afford.
It appears the press is finally taking notice of what many of us have long seen in the Obamas:
'Michelle Obama is a modern-day Marie Antoinette': First Lady slammed for lavish Marbella holiday
Yep and if she paid for the security with her own funds also
LOL!
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/07/your_tax_dollars_at_work_suppo.html
July 07, 2009
Your Tax Dollars at Work: Supporting Michelle Obama in the Manner
Ralph Alter
The figures are in. As required by Congress since 1995, salaries paid to staffers employed in the West Wing of the White House must be publicly reported. Most of you won’t be pleased to learn that your tax dollars are paying $1,448,500 annually to provide the First Lady, Michelle Obama, with the staff she feels she needs to execute her duties as FLOTUS.
~snip~
“Private Citizens” do not have duties...
{we PAY duties)
Exactly! Taxpayer money is funding her “vacations” so we ARE trying to mind our business. If she is on the public dime she has no private life while spending our money for her “vacation”. I rather see the obamas vacated from the WH.
FUBO
Silence, peasants! How darest thou question the Queen. Bow down, I say, bow down and beg forgiveness of her, or it’s off with your head.
SNLive would NEVER. Obamasons or fresh prince Obama playin B Ball at the WH does not match their political agenda.
But it would be funny.
Oh, okay. Uh...So what's this _private citizen_ doing spending _public money_ to support herself, her family and guests, and her Secret Service entourage???
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BTW...
Bob is a BS expert...
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Have a great day!
She has jobs planting poisonous gardens and telling kids they are fat and visiting Oprah.
LOL! Yeah, it’s good to be Queen isn’t it?
Is the magnitude of this trip unprecedented? Have other FLOTUS’s done anything like this on this scale?
I can see a need to pay Hillary for a trip over there, to a certain degree; but the scale of this seems excessive. So the question is: was this scale of travel expenditure mixed with state business; by a FLOTUS been acceptable in the past?
I suspect the Royal Household just needs a good laugh!
Robert Gibbs, NOT listening to you at all, period.
Meanwhile... 479,000 Americans lost their jobs last week.
Bobby, we the taxpayers are paying a substantial amount of money for her vacation trips, and she has an office in the White House, with staff.
She is far removed from being a private citizen, Bubba.
Even if she did, which I am sure is not the case, there is still the issue of the Obama vulgar show of extravagant living when the campaign cry from Zero was that we all should "SPREAD THE WEALTH." So, maybe Obamas should open their million dollar home and let the poor families of Chicago vacation there in nice air conditioned comfort and luxury. But, oh, right...that did not apply to the Obamas or any other of your rich Democrat friends with the deep pockets, estates, private jets, yachts, etc.
Plus Mr. Gibbs forgets that being a First Lady comes is an extended public office.
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