Posted on 12/26/2012 7:08:35 AM PST by crosshairs
President Obama will return to Washington from Hawaii Thursday while First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters plan to continue their vacation, adding at least $100,000 and probably more than $200,000 to taxpayer costs for the excursion.
Instead of accompanying her husband home on Air Force One, Mrs. Obama will fly on her own Air Force jet at a later date and require security and staff to remain in place in Hawaii for the length of her stay, which reportedly could extend until January 6.
The White House does not reveal the price tag for the Obamas’ vacations. But an estimate can be made given several known and likely expenses.
Assuming Mrs. Obama uses the type of plane she has flown before to Hawaii, the Air Force C-40B Special Mission Aircraft, the cost of a flight from Honolulu to Washington would be about $63,000. If the C-40B must be flown out to Hawaii to retrieve Mrs. Obama, as would seem likely, the first lady’s travel costs could amount to about $126,000, assuming the jet is dispatched from Washington.
And the cost would be much higher still if a supply-carrying cargo jet comes home along with Michelle in addition to the cargo jet that accompanies Air Force One – particularly if that jet too must be flown out to Hawaii just for Mrs. Obama.
Once you throw in the tens of thousands of dollars that must be dished out to house, pay, and support the military and Secret Service assets enlisted to protect Mrs. Obama – as well as other support staff – the price tag for her stay is probably in excess of $200,000, and possibly much more, depending on how long she remains on vacation.
Mrs. Obama flew to Hawaii separately from the president in 2010 and 2011, in those cases leaving early with the family while he finished work with Congress and then joined them for the remainder of the vacation.
If Obama strikes an early deal on the fiscal cliff and then returns to Hawaii to finish up his vacation, the tab for taxpayers would be extraordinary. Air Force One costs about $180,000 an hour to fly, and the roundtrip taxpayer-funded ticket for the nine-hour flight would amount to about $3.24 million.
Obama plans to fly out of Hawaii Wednesday night at about 10:00 pm local time, which would get him to the White House at around 12:30 pm ET on Thursday.
It might be a “cultural thing” at that - the culture of “make this cost whitey as much as possible”.
mediamtters nuff said
This ticks me off bigtime. Those two grifters have spent more in the last four years than many people, including myself, make in a lifetime. I dread to think of the damage they will do in the next four years.
Exactly, President Bush worked on his ranch, unlike the current resident.
I don’t beliieve he knows the meaning
We don'ts needs no steekin budget...
Can you imagine the conniption fits the drivebys would be having if this were Bush43 (or any Republican for that matter)?
Vet, having evidence to refute Media Matters, matters little. Logic and common sense are of no concern to these morons. It is only important that they feel good about it.
In one interview Laura Bush said items such as food for the living quarters are considered personal expenses and not paid for by the taxpayer. IOW, they were responsible for the family grocery bill.
I would imagine the same held true for the Obamas. If so,I would hope room and board for a personal vacation is considered a personal expense and the Obamas picked up the bill.
That being said, I do not doubt for one minute that Obama uses every loophole available to make all vacations business trips so that we pick up as much of the expense as possible. It is not above him to squeeze us for all we are worth (and then some) so that the US taxpayer is footing 99.9% of what should come out of his own pocket, which is exactly what he accuses those mean, old fat cats of doing.
I don't think it is always just to run up the bill.
When Baraq Hussein Ubama took his victory lap run through the Islamic middle East in 2009, his wife joined him when he got to Europe I suspect so she didn't have to be pictured in a burqua following "her man" behind by several steps.
The last time the Obamas went to Marthas Vineyard, MO and the kids took a government private jet straight to the island arriving about 4 hours before BO. Air Force One is too large to land on the Vineyard so it had to land on Cape Cod then BO took a helicopter over to the island. They have one of the biggest “Private Jets” in the world at their disposal but that wasn’t good enough for MO who just needed her own jet to get to the Island 4 HOURS EARLIER!?! Pathetic. That was coming at a time when the Obama administration was slamming CEO’s for their private jet use. Shameless!
Oh, I sure can, but as a matter of fact, they did have a conniption, it just did not matter to them that he worked on his vacation
Where’s the bikini photos of FUMO? LOL
I think they are out of school more than they are in — taking vacations with the Mooch. Look for more lavish travel in the next 4 years. These grifters are going to milk this for everything they can and make Juan and Eva Peron look like pikers.
These anti-American grifters and their grifter family make me sick. May they all go to prison.
For one, the fuel alone would be 4 times as much to HA than to TX and two, it was to Bush’s own ranch so the taxpayers were footing a huge holiday rental.
The wax museum, the museum with mummies and wolves, a shrine, Fort Niagara, Grand Island...and of course, the roar of the falls. Great place...
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