News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. May 31, 2013: It’s been a lonely journey until now.
For me …
Finally I have some company.
Some Republicans and the New York Times.
An odd couple. Them not me!
I frequently return to the subject of the Hypocrite President & Wife Michelle and the very luxurious life style of this First Couple more so than any before them. The Obamas know how to live the Good Life better yet at our expenses. Better for them not us.
Nothing better for them worse for us characterizes their Style than Air Force One plus all the other “stealth” luxury govt. planes Michelle uses on her own travels at our expense. FINALLY someone else has figured out what is going on. More to the point someone else is willing to note what anyone with half a brain also knows. But for Obama sycophants which means most of Official Washington, most of the Republican side and all of the Democratic side see NOTHING, know NOTHING, say NOTHING.
Round and round and round we go and where it stops …. OOPS it never does!
Last week I made no use of the Big Wig media in my Commentary, this week I will make copious use of them and first go back in time. In fact others have occasionally noted Obama’s abuse of Air Force One.
This is from the LA Times way back on January 3, 2011, about 2 ½ years ago, from an article nicely titled” TOP OF THE TICKET Obama and Air Force One It’s good to have a 747.”
Last year Obama flew in Air Force One 172 times, almost every other day.
White House officials have been telling reporters in recent days that the Democrat doesn’t intend to hang around the White House quite so much in 2011.
They explain he wants to get out more around the country because, as everyone knows, that midterm election shellacking on Nov. 2 had nothing to do with his healthcare bill, over-spending or other policies, and everything to do with Obama’s not adequately explaining himself to his countrymen and women.
And with only 673 days remaining in the never ending presidential campaign, the incumbent’s travel pace will not likely slacken.
At an Air Force-estimated cost of $181,757 per flight hour (not to mention the additional travel costs of Marine One, Secret Service, logistics and local police overtime), that’s a lot of frequent flier dollars going into the president’s carbon footprint.
(yes let’s not forget Obama on Air Force One is the world’s single biggest polluter.)
We are privy to some of these numbers thanks to CBS’ Mark Knoller, a bearded national treasure trove of presidential stats. According to Knoller’s copious notes, during the last year Obama made 65 domestic trips over 104 days and six trips to eight countries over 22 days. Not counting six vacation trips over 32 days.
He took 196 helicopter trips, signed 203 pieces of legislation and squeezed in 29 rounds of left-handed golf.
There is more to this article but that’s enough, and most of all this way many, many trips ago by Obama on Air Force One
Now let’s bring this story up to the present with a NY Times article Thursday ….
CHICAGO — 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.
“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, long-time supporters. He said returning to Chicago for the day was like “Old Home Week.”
Time for a break from the Time article for a fact check …
Looks like it now costs more to have lunch with Michelle – $37, 600 than dinner with Barack which “only” costs $32,400. $5,200 less and you get a full dinner not just lunch !
WAIT A SECOND … copious fund raising … isn’t the election over???? O well …
Now back to the Times article ….
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. “We don’t have a problem with him taking vacations, but it seems petty to close the White House to tours when forgoing one or two out-of-town vacations would easily pay for the cost of keeping it open.”
Now here is a particularly precious paragraph from the article …
Almost by definition, Mr. Obama lives a life foreign to most Americans, with the big White House and the ushers and chefs and the airplane fueled and ready to go. When he wants a weekend away, he can fly to Florida to golf with Tiger Woods. When his daughters take spring break, they head to Aspen to ski. He winters in Hawaii and summers on Martha’s Vineyard.
Yes it is time for one of my very special patented rhetorical “encores” …..
Almost by definition, Mr. Obama lives a life foreign to most Americans, with the big White House and the ushers and chefs and the airplane fueled and ready to go. When he wants a weekend away, he can fly to Florida to golf with Tiger Woods. When his daughters take spring break, they head to Aspen to ski. He winters in Hawaii and summers on Martha’s Vineyard.
Presenting the KING & QUEEN of America!!
Some of you actually believed we got rid of that position back on July 4, 1776. WRONG.
Again there is more to the article but this is enough to deliver a valuable message.
And it is a mistake just to dwell on the fancy planes the Obamas use all the time. They are but one very obvious aspect of the life style they live to the hilt. Can we really expect Presidents to live regular life styles? No. Haven’t other Presidents been imperial? Yes!
It’s not the point Dear Reader. The Obamas do it “better” (sic) than all the others. But much more which is emphasized by their blatant excess is the REAL message of Obama’s America why this Commentary exists. Barack is a Con Man and Fraud. He and Michelle are in a class by themselves with the level of hypocrisy they have brought to the Presidency and the abandon with which they mock us with their life styles of the very rich and very famous while telling us they are Change Masters intend on making America better for all of us. They are making America “better” for just two individuals.
Wait a second …
I just got a call from The White House.
They just told me to tell you President Obama has taken a temporary voluntary $20,000 pay cut as President if the sequester last for an entire year.
What is wrong with me?
Barack feels our pain.
Thank God we still have a King!
Mr. President, here is your plane back with my “apologies.” (NOT) ….
So you can maintain the largest carbon footprint of anyone on Earth.
About The Writer: Arthur Piccolo is a professional writer and commentator and often writes about Latin America for New Americas.
