Free Republic

The most lavish expenditure on record to date was the first lady’s Africa trip and a single Honolulu vacation, which cost taxpayers $15,885,585.30 in flight expenses alone. The single largest expense for accommodations was for Michelle Obama’s side-trip to Dublin, Ireland, during the 2013 G-8 conference in Belfast, when she and her entourage booked 30 rooms at the five-star Shelbourne Hotel, with the first lady staying in the 1,500-square-foot Princess Grace suite at a cost of $3,500 a night. The total cost to taxpayers for the Obamas’ Ireland trip was $7,921,638.66.

When is a White House event for 500 people considered “private?” They won’t say. Nor would they say, in advance, that hundreds of guests were expected on Saturday night for a soiree and serenade from Prince, as guests of the President and First Lady. All White House spokesman Josh Earnest would say about the Saturday event was that the First Family paid for it (though he wouldn’t elaborate on how much it cost, or whether things like security were also covered).

It’s increasingly difficult to tell the difference between Teach for America — whose leaders are at the forefront of inflammatory anti-police protests in Baltimore, Ferguson, and now McKinney, Texas — and left-wing activist groups such as Organizing for Action (President Obama’s partisan community organizing army). Guess what, taxpayers? You’re paying for it!

Texas is larger than most countries in the United Nations, some not much bigger than the postage stamps they print for collectors, but each with a vote that can cancel ours out. Texas is about to a vote against the U.N.’s sovereignty-destroying Agenda 21, so named because it claims to be setting a “sustainable growth” agenda for the 21st century. Agenda 21 is in fact a global power grab similar to climate-change treaties like the Kyoto Protocol. It uses the imaginary threat of unsustainable growth which allegedly threatens to plunder the planet’s finite resources, like climate change allegedly threatens planetary...

Between the shrimp on a treadmill study and then the IRS's Star Trek-themed training films, there have been more than a few cries of outrage from taxpayers fed-up with their hard earned dollars seemingly wasted on hyper-frivolous reports and projects, the federal government doesn't seem to have gotten the message. Case in point would be the article published by The Washington Free Beacon on April 17, 2015, which details the government dropping nearly a half million dollars to study the levels of sexual satisfaction for men after their first "penetrative same-sex experience." With the impressive project title of FIRST AND...

The federal government is still seeking answers as to why the majority of lesbians are obese and U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill, which now totals $2.87 million. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) study is now in its fourth year, receiving an additional $670,567 for fiscal year 2014. The project seeks to determine why “nearly three-quarters of adult lesbians overweight or obese,” and why gay males are not. In just two years the project’s budget has nearly doubled, growing from $1.5 million to nearly $3 million today, despite fears that sequestration could jeopardize the project and other NIH funding....

All textbooks on iPad at my child's high school, computers for all from K-12 in the school district where I live. This even though most kids already have one and some have more than one computer of their own, the schools private and public have purchased from Apple zillions of MacBook Airs and iPad Airs to bestow upon their students. Students are to use a program called Noteability to write on the screens with the stylus that came with the "device" and use Google connect to send in to their teachers. Did anyone ask the parents for input on any...

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL -- I pay lots of taxes. Some of my money supports U.S. Special Forces, and that pleases me. I have no problem helping fund the U.S. Park Service or the Centers for Disease Control. I am, however, a tad uneasy about my tax dollars -- and yours --going to support terrorists. You think I’m joking? The U.S. government gives more than $400 million a year to the Palestinian Authority (PA). Last week, the Israeli prime minister’s office presented figures on the PA’s payments to terrorists imprisoned in Israel: In 2011-2012, the PA’s Ministry of Prisoners Affairs transferred...

Fifty years and trillions of dollars after the “War on Poverty” was launched, poor Americans aren’t much better off, according to a study published by Republican reformers in Congress. The War on Poverty has barely made a dent in actual poverty, states the 205-page report unveiled last month by the House Budget Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.).

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Michelle Obama and her daughters, Sasha and Malia, are in China to promote family, a U.S.-China diplomacy, and they are doing it in style. Obama wore a leather-and-suede patchwork Derek Lam dress. She paired it with thigh high boots, and seemed to be dressed for slightly chilly weather. Sasha and Malia were equally as chic. The sisters wore complementary outfits, as they are known to do. Sasha wore a velvet red skirt, a black top and tights. Malia wore a shiny silver pleated skirt and a brown shirt. The Obamas were invited by another stylish lady, Chinese First Lady Peng...

“Maybe we can reach a point of reconsideration” on Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill, Kerry said during a forum at the State Department. The Ugandan president committed to meeting with American “experts” on homosexuality to try to change his mind about the Anti-Homosexuality Act signed into law last month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday during a forum at the State Department moderated by BuzzFeed. Museveni claimed to have signed the law, which imposes up to a lifetime prison sentence for homosexuality, after being convinced no one is “born gay.” “I talked personally to President Museveni just a few...

Highlights of first lady Michelle Obama's trip to China with her daughters and mother: THURSDAY: Arrives Beijing. FRIDAY: Joins first lady Peng Liyuan at Beijing Normal School; visits Forbidden City; meets with Peng and joins her for dinner and performance.

Michelle Obama, her daughters and her mother plan a week-long solo visit to China this month that includes meetings with China's first lady and high school and university students - and will likely cost U.S. taxpayers millions of dollars. The Obamas' trip to Africa for Nelson Mandela's funeral cost taxpayers $11 million while the president was only in the country for 13 hours A 2013 trip to Africa for the president cost taxpayers more than $100 million .

For much of Barack Obama’s presidency, he has sought to avoid being defined by his race or gender, often emphasizing that he is the leader of all Americans. On Thursday, Mr. Obama will use the power of his office to focus on helping young black men succeed. Stymied by Congress on many of the economic policies he considers central to the lives of blacks, Mr. Obama is seeking to prod nonprofit foundations, business groups and civic leaders to provide more opportunities for a struggling part of the American family. His new “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative is aimed at finding ways...

“Cigarettes are bullies. Don’t let tobacco control you.” That’s the message from the Food and Drug Administration’s new anti-smoking campaign, “The Real Cost,” which is aimed at teens and pre-teens. The FDA says its goal is to reduce the number of the number of future smokers, thereby reducing the harmful effects that tobacco use has on “the health of our country.”

Michelle Obama doesn't want jewelry or chocolates for her 50th birthday later this month. She wants to be alone. President Barack Obama returned to Washington Saturday after two weeks of vacationing with his family in Hawaii. He left with daughters Sasha and Malia. Michelle stayed behind. 'As part of her birthday gift from the president, the first lady will remain in Hawaii to spend time with friends ahead of her upcoming 50th birthday,' the White House explained in a statement. The First Lady turns the big 5 - 0 on January 17. The White House did not say how much...

CBS/Reuters January 5, 2014, 8: 26 AM Obama’s birthday gift to his wife? Time off, alone HONOLULU - President Barack Obama is going to give his wife the birthday present that many parents can only dream of - time off, alone, without the children. The White House said on Saturday first lady Michelle Obama would stay in Hawaii, where the family has been on vacation for the last two weeks, rather than return home with her husband and their two girls. "As part of her birthday gift from the president, the first lady will remain in Hawaii to spend time...

Young people are key for the Affordable Care Act to work, and as a result of a half-million-dollar grant by the California Endowment, TV shows regularly consumed by these young people will soon be weaving Obamacare into plotlines in order to get more of them enrolled in the health care program.If you’ve ever watched Modern Family or New Girl and thought, “Gee, if only I was learning about the benefits of a complex federal program during this, it would be so much better,” you’re in luck! The 18-month grant, to the Lear Center’s Hollywood Health & Society program, will be...

Hundreds are marching on the National Mall in Washington, DC to protest covert NSA surveillance operations on the anniversary of the Patriot Act. The organizers are planning to present Congress with a petition which has acquired over 570,000 signatures. Stop Watching Us is a collective of 100 public advocacy groups, among them the American Civil Liberties Union, Freedom Works, as well as individuals like Chinese artist/activist Ai Weiwei and Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who worked with Edward Snowden to expose many of the NSAÂ’s surveillance procedures. The rally is scheduled to begin at 11:30 am local time on October...