President Obama's Lavish Vacations Are Under Scrutiny Again

[rockin'robin]

President Barack Obama is very adept at side-stepping questions and diverting the conversation from real issues to partisan rhetoric. Earlier this week Obama sat down with ABC News St. Louis anchorman Larry Conners to discuss the "Buffett Rule" and again proved how out of touch he is with the American people. Once the interview turned to the topic excessive and expensive vacations taken by the first family, Obama's entire demeanor changed as he evaded the question, according to videos clips on The Blaze.

A president deserves to take a vacation with his family. White House travel is always heavily scrutinized and publicized. The frequent trips create an image of opulence at the expense of the taxpayers. President Obama's family vacations and state business trips should not also be a part of his campaign schedule. Perception is reality in the political arena. Every time the first family is photographed stepping off Air Force One, the trip is typically viewed as leisure travel by voters.

Instead of addressing the question posed in a forthright manner, Obama just stated that he feels the American people realize how hard he is working for them and that he is raising a family. Millions of adults also work hard and will have to eliminate or shorter family vacation plans this year. It is understandable that the president must travel on Air Force One with a full security force everywhere he goes. Security costs vastly increase when a president travels to public locations for vacations multiple times throughout the year.

When American families are cutting back on travel due to rising gas and food prices, President Obama should be considerate of the sacrifices millions of citizens are forced to make and adjust his travel plans accordingly. Statistics published by The Blaze note the Obama vacation to Hawaii last year cost approximately $4 million. Before the family trip to Hawaii, the Obama's had already spent $10 million dollars of taxpayer money traveling to Vail, Colo.; Martha's Vineyard, Mass.; and Spain

The anchorman's viewer-prompted questions concerning President Obama's vacations were valid and deserved far more than a brush-off response. Obama appeared to be more concerned about how many viewers had voiced concerns than the question which had also been posed by a many journalists during his term in office.

President Obama's Lavish Vacations Are Under Scrutiny Again - Yahoo! News

 

[Jiro]

I guess that's where GSA started getting idea from...

 

[Glenn]

Nothing the president does is simple as what the average citizen does. So it is gonna cost a lot more money, and yes, it is gonna be taxpayer money.

 

[TXgolfer]

GOP needs to run this for the next 7 months

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4Jw7ysuI1Q]Obama - "I will not rest..." montage - YouTube[/ame]

 

[kokonut]

GOP needs to run this for the next 7 months

Obama - "I will not rest..." montage - YouTube

I think he didn't rest some 93 separate times. Must be a handicap thing.

 

[Jane B.]

President Barack Obama is very adept at side-stepping questions and diverting the conversation from real issues to partisan rhetoric. Earlier this week Obama sat down with ABC News St. Louis anchorman Larry Conners to discuss the "Buffett Rule" and again proved how out of touch he is with the American people. Once the interview turned to the topic excessive and expensive vacations taken by the first family, Obama's entire demeanor changed as he evaded the question, according to videos clips on The Blaze.

A president deserves to take a vacation with his family. White House travel is always heavily scrutinized and publicized. The frequent trips create an image of opulence at the expense of the taxpayers. President Obama's family vacations and state business trips should not also be a part of his campaign schedule. Perception is reality in the political arena. Every time the first family is photographed stepping off Air Force One, the trip is typically viewed as leisure travel by voters.

Instead of addressing the question posed in a forthright manner, Obama just stated that he feels the American people realize how hard he is working for them and that he is raising a family. Millions of adults also work hard and will have to eliminate or shorter family vacation plans this year. It is understandable that the president must travel on Air Force One with a full security force everywhere he goes. Security costs vastly increase when a president travels to public locations for vacations multiple times throughout the year.

When American families are cutting back on travel due to rising gas and food prices, President Obama should be considerate of the sacrifices millions of citizens are forced to make and adjust his travel plans accordingly. Statistics published by The Blaze note the Obama vacation to Hawaii last year cost approximately $4 million. Before the family trip to Hawaii, the Obama's had already spent $10 million dollars of taxpayer money traveling to Vail, Colo.; Martha's Vineyard, Mass.; and Spain

The anchorman's viewer-prompted questions concerning President Obama's vacations were valid and deserved far more than a brush-off response. Obama appeared to be more concerned about how many viewers had voiced concerns than the question which had also been posed by a many journalists during his term in office.

President Obama's Lavish Vacations Are Under Scrutiny Again - Yahoo! News

When they can't even get the network right I wonder about the other things reported. Larry Conners is with KMOV Channel 4 a CBS station!

 

[airportcop]

I think that any president deserves at least 1-2 good vacations a year for what they do. BUT, how many has O taken??? It seems to me that he thinks he is way too important and deserving of our money. WRONG!!! Give us a break O!

 

[Jiro]

Bush Spent 5 Times More On Flights To Texas Than Obama?s Christmas Vacation Costs

Those who criticize the cost of Obama’s Christmas vacation don’t want you to know that George W. Bush spent at least $20 million taxpayer dollars just on flights to his ranch in Crawford.

The right wing has been outraged at the four million dollar plus price tag for Obama’s family Christmas vacation, and they constantly hold George W. Bush up as an example of how thrifty a president should be when going on vacation.

The problem is that W. wasn’t thrifty. He was the most expensive vacation president in US history. Not only did Bush spend more days on vacation than any other president, but he used Air Force One more often while on vacation than any other president.

During Bush’s two terms, the cost of operating Air Force One ranged from $56,800 to $68,000 an hour. Bush used Air Force One 77 times to go to his ranch in Crawford, TX. Using the low end cost of $56,800, Media Matters calculated that each trip to Crawford cost taxpayers $259,687 each time, and $20 million total for Bush’s ranch flights.

If cost of the flight was the only expense involved to taxpayers Bush’s vacations would still seem rather economical, but there is more, much more. Unlike the Obama’s $4 million Christmas vacation price tag, which includes the cost of everything from transportation to accommodations for the First Family, the White House staff, and the White House press corps, Bush’s numbers only include the cost of flying the president to Crawford. The cost of transporting and accommodating staff, media, friends and family is not included in Bush’s vacation numbers.

In response to growing criticism that the president was on vacation too much, the Bush administration adopted the Rovian tactic of scheduling, “work events,” while the president was in Crawford so that they could claim that President Bush’s vacations were working vacations. During his infamous pre-9/11 August vacation, the AP reported that, “Using the ranch as a base, he will promote White House initiatives in Rocky Mountain National Park, Denver, Albuquerque, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and San Antonio.”

Bush’s “working vacations” cost taxpayers a small fortune in travel costs because President Bush and his staff would make day trips on Air Force One all across the country in order to counter the criticism that he was on vacation too often. For eight years, Bush essentially used Air Force One as his personal vacation taxi service.

What was also not counted in Bush’s Air Force One mileage total were the vacations where Bush flew to Crawford from Camp David such as the following via Media Matters:

In a December 27, 2001, Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel article (accessed via Nexis), national correspondent Jeff Zeleny reported “[a]fter spending Christmas at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, the president and first lady boarded Air Force One to travel to their ranch near the village of Crawford.”
And on December 26, 2007, The Associated Press reported that Bush took “Air Force One to fly from his Maryland mountaintop retreat to his Texas ranch here to see in the new year.”
FactCheck.org was writing about the anonymous chain emails about Obama’s travel costs and noted in July that the stories about Obama’s travel expenses are, “part of continuing pattern of false and misleading claims about the travels of the president and the first lady,” and that Obama used Air Force One less in his first two years in office than George W. Bush did.

That same pattern of false information about Obama’s travel costs relative to Bush’s is also rampant on right wing blogs, websites, and Fox News. The cost of Obama’s Christmas vacation is a good example of how right wing media can take a small fact like vacation costs or the number of Americans paying taxes in a single year and build an entire misinformation campaign around it.

The total cost of Obama’s Christmas vacation may be $4 million, but George W. Bush spent exponentially more taxpayers dollars, because he used Air Force One for political purposes in an attempt to distract the public from the amount of days that he was spending on vacation. In flights alone just for himself, George W. Bush spent five times more money flying just himself to Texas than Obama is spending on an entire Christmas vacation.

It is likely that the Bush administration spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on vacations, but the false outrage machine is on overdrive due to one Obama Christmas vacation.

By not including the cost of everything, the Obama bashers distorted the numbers to make it appear that Obama was lavishly spending taxpayer dollars on vacations, but a look inside the numbers reveals that nobody knows how to waste taxpayer dollars quite like the GOP.

Merry Christmas, Republicans. Here’s to another false Obama smear debunked.

 

[CrazyPaul]

We, taxpayers pay for his vacations? Damn! Why can't he pay for it himself like we pay for our vacations ourselves?

 

[Foxrac]

Bush Spent 5 Times More On Flights To Texas Than Obama?s Christmas Vacation Costs

Great post.

This thread is really nothing for me and no difference from Bush Admin.

Life goes on...

 

[Foxrac]

I think that any president deserves at least 1-2 good vacations a year for what they do. BUT, how many has O taken??? It seems to me that he thinks he is way too important and deserving of our money. WRONG!!! Give us a break O!

You should forget about something.

 

[airportcop]

You should forget about something.

Forget about what?

I would say that there were a lot of false and misleading statements made in the report that Jiro posted about Bush. Why don't we total up Obama's travel expenses and not just compare Bush to one of Obama's trips???!!! What about Michelle Obama's trip to Spain and they have been to Hawaii more than once and on separate planes! It is all just so wasteful that our forefathers would spin wildly in their graves.

 

[airportcop]

We, taxpayers pay for his vacations? Damn! Why can't he pay for it himself like we pay for our vacations ourselves?

While I partially agree, that would be difficult. But maybe if they were more budget conscious it wouldn't seem as bad.

 

[Foxrac]

Forget about what?

I would say that there were a lot of false and misleading statements made in the report that Jiro posted about Bush. Why don't we total up Obama's travel expenses and not just compare Bush to one of Obama's trips???!!! What about Michelle Obama's trip to Spain and they have been to Hawaii more than once and on separate planes! It is all just so wasteful that our forefathers would spin wildly in their graves.

GWB has a lot of vacations as well and no difference from Obama.

You found Jiro's article false and misleading? Time for tell him.

 

[TXgolfer]

Forget about what?

I would say that there were a lot of false and misleading statements made in the report that Jiro posted about Bush. Why don't we total up Obama's travel expenses and not just compare Bush to one of Obama's trips???!!! What about Michelle Obama's trip to Spain and they have been to Hawaii more than once and on separate planes! It is all just so wasteful that our forefathers would spin wildly in their graves.

How about Michelle's trip to Africa with Make up artist and hairstylist in tow.

 

[TXgolfer]

I would say that there were a lot of false and misleading statements made in the report that Jiro posted about Bush. Why don't we total up Obama's travel expenses and not just compare Bush to one of Obama's trips???!!!

Exactly, Comparing one trip to 8 years worth of trips

 

[kokonut]

Exactly, Comparing one trip to 8 years worth of trips

In terms of cost, certainly. Bush went to his remote ranch in Crawford, TX most times but the Obamas....well, let's just say they are using our tax dollars at our expense and at a time when people are struggling.

The Obama Vacation List (partial) up to February of this year:

-- President’s Day 2012, Michelle and the first daughters in Aspen, Colorado to ski.
-- Christmas 2011, the first family in Hawaii for an extended vacation.
-- Summer 2011, in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., for the annual beach break.
-- June 2011, the first lady, her mother and daughters traveled to South Africa and Botswana.
-- President’s Day 2011, the first lady and first daughters travel to Vail to ski.
-- Christmas 2010, in Hawaii.
-- August 2010, the first family traveled to Panama City Beach, Fla., for some sun and fun at the beach.
-- August 2010, Obama spent the weekend alone in Chicago for his 49th birthday bash.
-- August 2010, the first lady and daughter Sasha traveled to Spain for a mother-daughter vacation.
-- August 2010, summer vacation again at Martha’s Vineyard.
-- July 2010, the first family went to Mount Desert Island, Maine.
-- May 2010, the first family had a four-day trip to Chicago.
-- March 2010, first lady and daughter spend Spring Break in New York City.
-- Christmas 2009, Hawaii again for the annual break.
-- August 2009, at Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon for a short vacation.
-- August 2009, their first summer vacation as first family at Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Michelle's ski trip marks 16 Obama vacations | Washington Examiner

 

[Foxrac]

In terms of cost, certainly. Bush went to his remote ranch in Crawford, TX most times but the Obamas....well, let's just say they are using our tax dollars at our expense and at a time when people are struggling.

The Obama Vacation List (partial) up to February of this year:


Michelle's ski trip marks 16 Obama vacations | Washington Examiner

487 Days At Camp David For Bush - Political Hotsheet - CBS News
FactCheck.org : President Obama’s Vacation Days - (only half of Obama's first term and compare to 5 presidents in past)

 

[kokonut]

How about Michelle's trip to Africa with Make up artist and hairstylist in tow.

Yeah, all those trips sure make it look bad during a bad economy. I suppose they are sacrificing a lot and feel they deserve such an expensive trip. They never choose their vacations wisely enough, obviously.

 

[Foxrac]

Yeah, all those trips sure make it look bad during a bad economy. I suppose they are sacrificing a lot and feel they deserve such an expensive trip. They never choose their vacations wisely enough, obviously.

Obviously, no doubt about you are anti-Obama and never turn to be positive.