Report: Obamas, Bidens Spent $295,437 on Just One Vacation Weekend

The Washington Examiner ^ | Thursday, January 23, 2014 | Paul Bedard

[kristinn]

Presidents Day seems to have no equal when when it comes to how the occupants of the White House and vice president's residence vacation.

According to new records obtained by the taxpayer watchdog group Judicial Watch, three separate jaunts taken by President Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, and Vice President Joe Biden during last year's Presidents Day weekend cost at least $295,437.

And that’s mostly just for security, not Air Force One or other official costs.

The records were obtained from the U.S. Secret Service and details some of the "security and/or other services" of Obama’s mid-February 2013 golf trip to West Palm Beach, Fla., the annual Aspen, Colo. ski trip taken by the first lady and her daughters, and the Biden family trip, also to Aspen.

[Fast Moving Angel]

Heck, every day is President’s Day for him.

[tet68]

Heck, if it only costs that much a day to get them out of
Washington, I say GO FOR IT!

[be-baw]

That should pay for approximately 300,000 cans of dog food that someone could eat.

[Slyfox]

$295,437

Sounds like they are economizing.

[xp38]

I read somewhere the white house budget is about 1.5 billion. That works out to about 4 to 5 million a day. Yep that is economizing all right. Now granted a huge chunk of that is taken up running air force 1 but still.

[AlexW]

“$295,437 Sounds like they are economizing. “
____________________________________________________
Yes, $295,437 is chump change compared to the cost of his African trip, up to 100 million bucks.

[kristinn]

That’s just the Secret Service cost. It doesn’t include Air Force travel and other expenses.

[SpaceBar]

The US government has shaped up to be the single largest case of larceny ever pulled off in all of recorded history.

[nascarnation]

Dumb question....
They say the cost is largely for “security”
Aren’t all these people on the payroll already?
I mean does the fedgov go out an hire rent-a-cops when SlowJoe is on vacation?

[Slyfox]

I read somewhere the white house budget is about 1.5 billion.

Well, now we know why Moochie is still hanging around.

[kristinn]

Agents need to be brought in for the expanded coverage needed on travel outside D.C.

[nascarnation]

But aren’t these agents already costing us money every day?

I’m just trying to discern how much of this is true incremental costs.

[mcshot]

Let’s volunteer them to go one way to Pluto...I mean Mars or better yet just lost in space with no A/V.

[kristinn]

The expenses cited in the report are for travel, hotels and rental cars for the agents. Not salary.

[xp38]

Here is a link to an estimate of running the white house which puts the tag at around 1.5 billion for the year 2008. You can see estimate for air force one is 200 million and the helicopters an additional 271 million. I like item number 10 which is listed as the Presidents unanticipated needs and is pegged at a 1 million.

http://theintrepid.blogspot.ca/2008/11/how-much-does-it-cost-to-operate-white.html

[Slyfox]

Here is an image of Ulysses S. Grant as he is suffering from the last stages of cancer, writing his memoirs so that the sale of which might help his family since what he got from his days being president would not help his wife.

Kinda makes Obama look like a chump, don't it?