Travels of the President Under a Microscope in an Era of Belt Tightening

New York Times ^ | May 29, 2013 | MICHAEL D. SHEAR and PETER BAKER

[lbryce]

Perhaps it is nothing more than an accident of timing that as federal workers brace for a summer filled with unpaid furlough days, their leaders are traveling the nation and globe on trips that exude luxury.

On Wednesday, President Obama left the White House for two Chicago fund-raisers in the hope of helping Democrats retake the House in next year’s elections. The cost of flying aboard Air Force One to his hometown: $180,000 per hour.

The same day, Michelle Obama traveled to Massachusetts to lunch with rich donors who had paid up to $37,600 per ticket at the Taj Boston Hotel. The meal included roasted Chilean sea bass with a fricassee of asparagus. Meanwhile, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his wife, Jill, were in Rio de Janeiro, part of a six-day swing through Latin America to discuss trade and investment, including a stop in Trinidad and Tobago.

“We’ve got kind of an Obama cabal in this room,” the president joked Wednesday night during a $32,400-per-couple fund-raiser with about 70 of his friends at the home of Bettylu and Paul Saltzman, longtime supporters. He said returning to Chicago for the day was like “Old Home Week.”

For a leader presiding over automatic budget cuts and a slow-moving economic recovery, there are growing political costs to presidential travel. Every move a president makes costs money, and in an era when money is in short supply, that means heightened scrutiny. Vacations are especially touchy.

“The president is asking the people to sacrifice but never himself,” Representative Chris Stewart, Republican of Utah, said when he introduced a resolution this year asking Mr. Obama to forgo vacations to pay for resuming White House tours cut because of the automatic budget cuts, known as the sequester.

[lbryce]

“The president is asking the people to sacrifice but never himself,” Representative Chris Stewart, Republican of Utah, said when he introduced a resolution this year asking Mr. Obama to forgo vacations to pay for resuming White House tours cut because of the automatic budget cuts, known as the sequester.

SNIP

Bob Dole, the former Republican senator from Kansas, was more blunt when asked generally about Mr. Obama’s travels in a rare interview on “Fox News Sunday” this week. “He’s on the road too much,” Mr. Dole said.

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The hubris, gall of these two high on the hog hedonistic freeloaders have been living like there was no tomorrow but this time 'no tomorrow' may very well be literal. They've been taking while the taking is good without a penny's worth of thought or consideration to the financial wherewithal that makes it all happen, their sense of overwhelming affluence regarding the money being spent to haul their a*ses all over the globe like old world money going out of style.

He has made a miserly, paltry gesture regarding the trillions he's frittering away by cutting his salary by $20,000. It's not much solace, but knowing they're not going to be able to fulfill every impulsive indulgence having the time of their lives celebrating our downfall with US govt money above and beyond with such egregious profligacy does to a very infinitesimal degree provide a certain sense of satisfaction, relief I otherwise wouldn't have.

[Stosh]

Mr. Shear and Mr. Baker are just noticing this? Have they been asleep for the last four years? Or is this just another story that the lamestream media could sit on until after the election?

[jiggyboy]

Why yes, his splurges are so rare and so hard to distinguish from normal governmental functioning that you need a “microscope” to see them at all. And of course you have to be somebody who wants to bother with such nit-picking, too.

[skeeter]

Its revealing of the dirty little secret of all committed Maoists - its not about equality, progress, the 'people', 'forward' or any of that BS. Statists aren't misguided or naive.

Its all about crass self interest.

When will people learn.

[jiggyboy]

“Officials said the White House had pared back because of the sequester. Staff travel, equipment purchases and hiring have been curtailed. Among those furloughed was the assistant White House chef.”

This is of course the best example of “furlough” they could come up with.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

I’ll take “Sat On” for 500, Alex.

[Liz]

MEMO TO NYT: GOOD START. NOW GET THE REST OF THE STORY.

=================================================

NRO tallied what taxpayers are paying for the Ohaha's living in the White House: $1.4 billion per year: Air Force One ($181,757 per hour), executive chef ($100,000 per year), three full-time White House calligraphers ($ 277,050 per year for the trio), chief of staff to the president’s dog ($102,000 per year), Ohaha's royal motorcade ($2.2 million).

==========================================

$1.4 BILLION is the current annual cost of the White House — just in household expenses, not including US policy operations for which the WH exists-- administered by some 900 parasites--- policy staff recruited by Ohaha.

Annually, Ohaha vacations cost $20 million (the low estimate for Ohaha's Hawaii vacay was $4 million, but the true cost is probably five times that); the first family’s yearly health-care costs are $7 million; more than $6 million is spent on the White House grounds each year. Transportation costs were a staggering $346 million last year.

The O' kids were flying aroound to the Bahamas and Sun Valley.....while US kids were shut out of the WH supposedly due to sequestration Secret Service cutbacks. The O's galivanting teen daughter was spotted in NY---with girlfriends---dining at the pricey Buddakan, scoffing up rock shrimp, edamame dumplings, short ribs, lobster fried rice........replete w/ five Secret Service guards dining nearby, while students her age were denied access to the people's house.

Buddakan

==============================================

Mrs O wore her pricey diamond bangles sat a DNC fund-raiser last Sept, attended by "tolerant and compassionate" Dems....raised big bucks to keep Mr O in office so he could work for "the poor." Her diamond Gothic cuff was priced at $15,350 set with 2.17 carats in diamonds and the Quatrefoil bracelet at $11,800 set with 1.73 carats in diamonds. (Excerpt) Read more at houston.culturemap.com

Mrs O wowed all the "tolerant and compassionate" Dems who hate the rich and support endless tax-paid programs "for the poor."Her diamond Gothic cuff was priced at $15,350 set with 2.17 carats in diamonds and the Quatrefoil bracelet at $11,800 set with 1.73 carats in diamonds. (Excerpt) Read more at houston.culturemap.com

===============================================

The self-described "busy single mother" with 24 tax-paid WH assistants.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Bush spent most of his away-time in Crawford at his own house.

[Buckeye McFrog]

hmmmm.....apparently the Slimes fears the ongoing adventures of Mr. and Mrs. Marie Antoinette will not be good for Democrats in 2014.

[Don Corleone]

“We be movin’ on up, Weezie. We be movin’ on up!”

[Liz]

Americans are struggling but:

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION APPROVES $50 MILLION DOLLARS IN FOREIGN AID TO KENYA. O'S HALF BRO READY TO CASH IN---RUNS THE TAX-EXEMPT "DO-GOOD IN KENYA" OBAMA FOUNDATION

NAMED FOR DEAR OLD DAD The tax-exempt “charity” named in honor of their Dad, is run by President Barack Obama’s half-brother Malik.

The tax-exempt Obama foundation, fast-tracked by Lerner for IRS tax-exempt status, is based at a Virginia UPS store, according to its website. The organization’s IRS filings list another Virginia address that is actually a drug rehab center where the foundation does not appear ever to have been based.

As first reported by The Daily Caller, the foundation was speedily approved for IRS exemption by Lois Lerner, the self-same IRS senior official at the center of the targeting of conservative organizations that have waited over two years to receive tax exempt status. The IRS thoughtfully gave Obama Foundation retroactive fund-raising status.......which it stupidly never applied for.

============================================

The tax-exempt Barack H. Obama Foundation is run by Abon’go “Roy” Malik Obama, the half-brother of Barack Obama. The foundation’s mission statement is “to provide people everywhere with resources to uplift their welfare and living standards in memory of dad---Barack H. Obama: in the region of his birth, Kenya, and beyond.” Its guiding principle is “the inherent belief that no one can truly enjoy the riches he has reaped if his neighbor suffers....."We seek to elevate the human condition so that everyone can live in dignity and truly enjoy having one another as neighbors.”

(same old, same old sap-happy do-goodniks)

Despite raising more than $250,000, the alleged charity doesn’t seem to have done much. Its website claims the organization has built a madrassa and was building an imam’s house as well as some “proposed latrines,” but there is no other evidence that the nonprofit was working to “mitigate social-shortcomings in areas of education and literacy, health and well-being, poverty, and lack of community infrastructure in such basic needs such as water, electricity, shelter and sustenance,” as the site says.

Alton Ray Baysden, a former Dept of State employee, allegedly a registered Republican, who helped start the Barack H Obama foundation, declined to comment before seeing copies of a reporter’s passport and govt ID, along with a description of the article’s “motivation” and “slant.”

Repeated reporters' phone calls went to the organization’s voicemail and were not returned.

Obama's half- brother Malik holds up photo of Obama in Muslim
dress taken on a trip to Kenya when Ohaha was about 23-24 yo.

[MrB]

Combination/collision of culture and ideology gives us the “optic” that black democrats’ primary reason for obtaining political office is to “live large” on the public dime.

[Uncle Miltie]

CHANGE THE SUBJECT, QUICK!!!!

(The NYT and Michael Shear taking dictation from the White Hut....)

THERE ARE NO SCANDALS WORTHY OF IMPEACHMENT!!!!

JUST OVERSPENDING!!!!

[lbryce]

Wow. That is mind-boggling. I thought I went a bit over the top with my comments about their living standards but thanks to you, I now see I wasn’t harsh enough. Unbelievable.

[rod1]

If the Obamas go home they would not even be bothered by the neighbors. Where exactly is fundraiser, Tony Rezko anyway.

[Seattle Conservative]

I thought that the DNC or other associated Democrat org was supposed to pay for Obummer’s and Moochelle’s travels if they were campaign related. I seem to recall this coming up in the Lamestream Media during G W’s term. Of course, I’m sure that reimbursement to the government only applies to Republicans.

Also, I just caught the last of something on FNC (think it was on Greta) last night - apparently at least some of the Fed employees being furloughed (don’t recall which dept) can go on unemployment. If that’s in fact the case, then the Admin (or dept) can say the cuts are due to sequester and/or they’re saving money (out of their bucket), but the US taxpayers are still paying for them. It stinks to high heaven!

[cornfedcowboy]

180K per hour is probably for fuel and pilots. They fail to mention the other 150 or so SS agents, Several cargo planes(to haul limo), Marine One,etc.. I bet a true accounting of a two day trip to Illinois for Obama would be at least $7 million.

[Liz]

CARE TO GUESS HOW MUCH IS STASHED OFFSHORE?

DO NOT FORGET, when Ohaha took office he immediately placed his COS---Chi/pal Rahm Emanuel---in charge of Treasury. REASON WHY? Rahm spent time on Wall Street at G/S---these guys know how to make money disappear faster than a cream puff at a Weight Watcher weigh-in. The much-heralded TARP bailout was only a fraction of Treasury 's financial sleight of hand (more below).

=======================================

FOURTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS Behind The Real Size of Obama's Wall Street Bailout; A guide to the abbreviations, acronyms, and obscure programs that make up the $14 trillion federal bailout.
SOURCE motherjones.com --- Mon Dec. 21, 2009 12:23 PM PST

The price tag for the Wall Street bailout is often put at $700 billion—the size of the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But TARP is just the best known program in an array of more than 30 overseen by Treasury Department and Federal Reserve that have paid out or put aside money to bail out financial firms and inject money into the markets.

To get a sense of the size of the real $14 trillion bailout, see our chart at web site. Below, a guide to the pieces of the puzzle:

Treasury Department bailout programs (Remember that Obama's Treasury Dept was controlled by his then-COS Rahm Emanuel, a savvy, connected Wall Streeter---was also a G/S lobbyist in the Clinton WH)

Money Market Mutual Fund: In September 2008, the Treasury announced that it would insure the holdings of publicly offered money market mutual funds. According to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), these guarantees could have potentially cost the federal government more than $3 trillion [PDF link].

Public-Private Investment Fund: This joint Treasury-Federal Reserve program bought toxic assets from banks and brokerages—as much as $5 billion of assets per firm. According to SIGTARP, the government's potential exposure from the PPIF is between $500 million and $1 trillion [PDF link].

TARP: As part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Treasury has made loans to or investments more than 750 banks and financial institutions. $650 billion has been paid out (not including HAMP; see below). As of December 21, 2009, $117.5 billion of that has been repaid.

Government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) stock purchase: The Treasury has bought $200 million in preferred stock from Fannie Mae and another $200 million from Freddie Mac [PDF] to show that they "will remain viable entities critical to the functioning of the housing and mortgage markets."

GSE mortgage-backed securities purchase: Under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the Treasury may buy mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to SIGTARP, these purchases could cost as much as $314 billion ---SNIP---.

LONG READ---go to web site to read more and checkout the shocking financial charts.

SOURCE http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/behind-real-

====================================================

THIS MADE ME LAUGH OUT LOUD When Rahm "decided" he wanted to be Mayor--he held a presser and announced "he had raised" $10 million in just a few weeks.

ROTFLOL

[cookcounty]

"Perhaps it is nothing more than an accident of timing that as federal workers brace for a summer filled with unpaid furlough days, "

Hey, aren't these the same lazy federal employees that got a massive 17% pay increase the day after Obama came into office? ---as the rest of America was getting pink slips?

Let them cry in their beer.

[cookcounty]

"Mr. Shear and Mr. Baker are just noticing this? Have they been asleep for the last four years? Or is this just another story that the lamestream media could sit on until after the election?"

His Royal Press Minions are paddling furiously, trying to substitute a small embarrassment for 3 massive scandals and 4 big ones........."hey! look over here!!....Please!"

[cookcounty]

"I thought that the DNC or other associated Democrat org was supposed to pay for Obummer’s and Moochelle’s travels if they were campaign related."

No, the Campaign just writes a check to the Treasury for the cost of a regular plane ticket for Obama and a basic hotel room and a regular ordinary limo charge (as well as for any "purely political" staff).

This is the way this has always been done (though not nearly with this frequency!).

[Cyber Liberty]

I assume this story is online only, or if it’s in the print edition it’s buried deep in the Style section?

[Cyber Liberty]

Bush spent most of his away-time in Crawford at his own house.

The liberals count the Crawford time as equivalent to Obastard's Martha's Vineyard time. Remember that the next time you hear "Bush took more vacay than Dear Leader!"

I always got a secret delight whenever I saw the news reporters doing the stand-up in front of the old barn with rusting farming implements behind them. I knew they so desperately wanted to be in a posh five-star hotel instead. I'll bet Bush got a kick out of it too.

[TurboZamboni]

[Seattle Conservative]

Thanks!