Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Royal Presidency - Obama lives better than kings. (Mark Steyn)
National Review Online ^ | December 8, 2012 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 12/08/2012 10:54:29 AM PST by neverdem

From the New York Daily News:

“Snooki Gives Kate Middleton Advice on Being a New Parent.”

Great! Maybe Kate could return the favor and give Snooki and her fellow Americans some advice. About fiscal prudence, for example...

--snip--

In his recent book Presidential Perks Gone Royal, Robert Keith Gray, a former Eisenhower staffer, revealed that last year the U.S. presidency cost American taxpayers $1.4 billion. Over the same period, the entire royal family cost British taxpayers about $57 million. There’s nothing “royal” about the current level of “presidential perks”: The Obama family costs taxpayers more than every European royal house put together.

In the American republic, even the dogs cost more. The Queen is a famous corgi lover and has been breeding them since she was a young girl. Now in her late 80s she’s slowing down and only keeps four. The president has one pooch, a photo-op accessory called Bo, who unlike the corgis requires a full-time handler. In contrast to the stingy remuneration offered by the royal household, the presidential dog-walker is one of 226 White House staff earning over $100,000 a year. For many centuries, the King had a courtier whose somewhat intimate duties were reflected in his title: the Groom of the Stool, a position abolished in 1559. Now, after two and a third centuries, the American presidency has evolved to the point that it has a full-time six-figure Groom of the Canine Stool. Will he be accompanying the president on Air Force One to liaise with the Keeper of the Privy Flatscreen over screenings of Lassie?...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: marksteyn; obama; steyn
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-48 next last

1 posted on 12/08/2012 10:54:31 AM PST by neverdem
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: JLS

Ping!


2 posted on 12/08/2012 10:56:29 AM PST by neverdem ( Xin loi min oi)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Grotesque.

Steyn’s wrong about one thing. There may be no “Groom of the Stool,” but Prince Charles demands his grooms hold his urine samples when visiting doctors.


3 posted on 12/08/2012 10:57:04 AM PST by miss marmelstein
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Another good, biting Steyn column. I honestly don’t understand why nobody questions this outrageous expense, particularly this “kick in the teeth” 3-week multi-multi-million dollar luxury vacation when everybody else in the country is being told that the end of the world is at hand.


4 posted on 12/08/2012 11:07:48 AM PST by livius
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Just seeing this tribe of arrogant grifters soiling the nation’s house and heritage every day is enough to make a patriot sad and mad.


5 posted on 12/08/2012 11:12:06 AM PST by Iron Munro (Big Moo & Bronco 'Bama = Robbing From The Hood and Boy Blunder)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

He lives like Louis Quatorze. Perhaps he can combine he characteristics and fates of that Louis and Louis Seizième.


6 posted on 12/08/2012 11:21:15 AM PST by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

The Left and the welfare class take pride and vicarious joy in “their” prince’s ostentatious wealth. The non-Communist foggy brained Left has always been Royalist at heart. Consider the ongoing adulation of the Kennedys where even a certified downsyn could be elected to any office in the Northeast if he has a genetic link to the Kennedy clan. It is their Right to Rule.


7 posted on 12/08/2012 11:26:11 AM PST by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

I don’t get this comparison at all, it is completely apple and oranges.


8 posted on 12/08/2012 11:28:29 AM PST by ansel12 (A.Coulter2005(truncated)Romney will never recover from his Court's create of a right to gay marriage)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

When I was a teenager I was aware that I and my contemporaries lived better than kings. With the exception of control over the lives of others, something I didn’t want anyway.


9 posted on 12/08/2012 11:28:41 AM PST by RobinOfKingston (Democrats--the party of Evil. Republicans--the party of Stupid.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
Amanda Heron was dispatched to the local mall in Trenton, Ontario, and returned with a pale blue and white comforter and matching pillows. Is there no end to the grotesque indulgence of these over-pampered royal deadbeats? “I found a beautiful set,” said Master-Corporal Heron. “It was such a great price I bought one for myself.”

LOL!

10 posted on 12/08/2012 11:29:53 AM PST by Tax-chick (More than you ever wanted to know, right?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Nothing like a Saturday Steyn column for a good laugh—and cry.


11 posted on 12/08/2012 11:39:30 AM PST by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 9YearLurker

Put another way, O and Moo, the royal grifters in the white hut, cost the American taxpayers 2000% more than the entire royal family of Great Britain.


12 posted on 12/08/2012 11:43:15 AM PST by Louis Foxwell (Better the devil we can destroy than the Judas we must tolerate.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Louis Foxwell

And that’s before he really cranks up the anonymous, crony capitalism, federal giveaways in return for donations to the Obama ‘library’ and foundation.


13 posted on 12/08/2012 11:47:16 AM PST by 9YearLurker
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: neverdem
The founding fathers would [fill in the blank] if they could see what's followed George Washington into the presidency.
14 posted on 12/08/2012 11:51:36 AM PST by Standing Wolf
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: miss marmelstein

Charles was reared by a queen.


15 posted on 12/08/2012 12:00:51 PM PST by Brad from Tennessee (A politician can't give you anything he hasn't first stolen from you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

If you listen to democrats, you’ll find that they believe him to be some kind of all powerful ruler.

The fact that Obama won seems to be one of their explanations of why we shouldn’t have Right To Work in Michigan.


16 posted on 12/08/2012 12:13:41 PM PST by cripplecreek (REMEMBER THE RIVER RAISIN!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Dump him to the sidewalk.


17 posted on 12/08/2012 1:32:11 PM PST by freekitty (Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Iron Munro

“Just seeing this tribe of arrogant grifters soiling the nation’s house and heritage every day is enough to make a patriot sad and mad.”

That’s a fact.


18 posted on 12/08/2012 1:38:31 PM PST by ought-six ( Multiculturalism is national suicide, and political correctness is the cyanide capsule.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Brad from Tennessee
And our queen was reared by a Larry.

Wonder who the father of the first girls are - they sure don't look like Obunga.

19 posted on 12/08/2012 2:18:46 PM PST by Aevery_Freeman (The trouble with the "masses" is that they never achieve the "m")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: neverdem

Absolutely offensive that we must pay these type sums of money for this First Family to travel and live in such luxury. The Obamas’ use of Air Force One is without question unprecedented as no other president has has used the presidential aircraft to travel such distances for vacation.

We as a nation should not have to finance a president’s air travel for vacations. Instead, a president and his family should make use of commercial airlines to travel for pleasure.


20 posted on 12/08/2012 2:19:29 PM PST by OKRA2012
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-48 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson