Obama's boondoggle to Africa to near $100MM

[ASUG8]

According to classified documents obtained this week by The Washington Post, the week-long trip, scheduled from June 26 to July 3, will involve hundreds of U.S. Secret Service agents, a Naval aircraft carrier with a fully-staffed medical trauma center stationed offshore, 24-hour continual air coverage by fighter jets flying in shifts, and 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines for the president and first lady, a specialized communications vehicle for secure telephone and video communications, a truck to jam radio frequencies around the president’s motorcade, an ambulance equipped to handle biological and chemical contaminants, a truck with x-ray equipment, and three trucks loaded with sheets of bulletproof glass to cover the president’s hotel windows. The vehicles will be airlifted by at least a dozen military cargo planes. Obama will be spending five nights on the continent, in Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania.

The estimated cost to the U.S. government: $60 to $100 million.

http://www.policymic.com/articles/49001 ... a-big-deal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[CAA Flagship]

Will he visit the place where he was born?

[Ivytalk]

Alex Haley would roll over in his grave. Didn't cost him $100MM to find his native village in Gambia.

[GannonFan]

I don't get the point of this thread - what things should the US President not travel with when he goes abroad while doing his job? Are we actually shocked that trips overseas by a sitting US President end up costing more than it would if any of us were to take a similar trip? The only thing that's different in these threads is that donks complain about it when a conk President is in office and conks do the same when a Donk is in office.

[dbackjon]

YAWN

[ALPHAGRIZ1]

You guys are just pissed because a black president is spending your money.

100 million seems very reasonable for any person to travel to Africa, in fact Im surprised its not more.

[ASUG8]

I don't get the point of this thread - what things should the US President not travel with when he goes abroad while doing his job? Are we actually shocked that trips overseas by a sitting US President end up costing more than it would if any of us were to take a similar trip? The only thing that's different in these threads is that donks complain about it when a conk President is in office and conks do the same when a Donk is in office.

You can't get a White House tour because we're under a sequester, but we can park an aircraft carrier off the coast with constant fighter jet support for a week? Yeah, seems like responsible spending for me, since we have so much to gain in Senegal/Tanzania/South Africa. Hopefully Barry, Michelle, and the kids will have a good time

[Ivytalk]

YAWN

No gay rights issue here. Just taxpayer dollars. Move along.

[Ivytalk]

I don't get the point of this thread - what things should the US President not travel with when he goes abroad while doing his job? Are we actually shocked that trips overseas by a sitting US President end up costing more than it would if any of us were to take a similar trip? The only thing that's different in these threads is that donks complain about it when a conk President is in office and conks do the same when a Donk is in office.

GF, you're turning into a self-righteous common scold. Shaddup.

[BDKJMU]

Why do people get in an uproar when IRS (and other govt employees) to stay in $3300 hotel suites on the taxpayer's dime and not when Michelle Obama does the same thing? To me its no different. They all should have to follow the govt rate.

"First lady Michelle Obama claims ritzy digs during Irish visit

First lady Michelle Obama is sparing no expense on her trip to Ireland, staying at a $3,300-per-night hotel suite in Dublin.

Irish press reports Monday said Mrs. Obama and her entourage have booked 30 rooms in the five-star Shelbourne hotel. The first lady is said to be staying in the Princess Grace Suite, named for the Hollywood film star and princess who had an attachment to the room.

The suite has two guest bedrooms, a living room and a dining area, according to the hotel’s website. There are four phones, three large televisions, bedding of 100 percent Egyptian cotton, a Nespresso machine and butler service.

The cost of the two-day trip in Ireland and Northern Ireland has been estimated at around $5 million. U.S. taxpayers pay the cost of the first family’s travel.

The Obama family also will travel to Germany, where President Obama is to give a speech on Wednesday.

At a time of sequestration budget cuts, the Obamas are coming under fire for their travel costs. The first family’s three-nation trip to Africa at the end of this month is expected to cost up to $100 million.

Mrs. Obama flew on Air Force One with the president and their daughters to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where Mr. Obama is attending the Group of Eight summit. But the first lady and the girls soon departed for Dublin, reportedly flying on Air Force Two to Ireland.

While in Ireland, Mrs. Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha will tour Trinity College and view archives pertaining to Mr. Obama’s ancestry. They also will visit with U.S. Embassy staff and attend a performance of the famed Irish dance show “Riverdance” at a historic theater."
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/ins ... gs-during/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[GannonFan]

I don't get the point of this thread - what things should the US President not travel with when he goes abroad while doing his job? Are we actually shocked that trips overseas by a sitting US President end up costing more than it would if any of us were to take a similar trip? The only thing that's different in these threads is that donks complain about it when a conk President is in office and conks do the same when a Donk is in office.

You can't get a White House tour because we're under a sequester, but we can park an aircraft carrier off the coast with constant fighter jet support for a week? Yeah, seems like responsible spending for me, since we have so much to gain in Senegal/Tanzania/South Africa. Hopefully Barry, Michelle, and the kids will have a good time

Well, I agree, the no White House tour thing is just a spiteful reaction to being shown that we don't really need to spend as much money as we do - kinda like a sore loser when we were kids who would take the ball away when he didn't get his way. But as for protecting the President in Africa when he's doing his job, hey, it's never going to be cheap to do so. Probably why we don't see him take trips to Africa every year. And yes, criticizing the First Lady's expenditures on a trip like this does make some sense - she's clearly doing some things that fall outside the realm of what her job is. Being a tourist and extending good will shouldn't have to cost this much.

[BDKJMU]

The White House has enough $$ for the above, but claims to not have enough $ to do White House tours (which reportedly cost about 74k a week to conduct).
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/tours-and-events%20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Does that make sense to anyone?

[BDKJMU]

I don't get the point of this thread - what things should the US President not travel with when he goes abroad while doing his job? Are we actually shocked that trips overseas by a sitting US President end up costing more than it would if any of us were to take a similar trip? The only thing that's different in these threads is that donks complain about it when a conk President is in office and conks do the same when a Donk is in office.

You can't get a White House tour because we're under a sequester, but we can park an aircraft carrier off the coast with constant fighter jet support for a week? Yeah, seems like responsible spending for me, since we have so much to gain in Senegal/Tanzania/South Africa. Hopefully Barry, Michelle, and the kids will have a good time

You beat me to it. Michelle's 5 million taxpayer funded vacation would pay for about 70 weeks of White House Tours:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/20 ... 2-million/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ASUG8]

You can't get a White House tour because we're under a sequester, but we can park an aircraft carrier off the coast with constant fighter jet support for a week? Yeah, seems like responsible spending for me, since we have so much to gain in Senegal/Tanzania/South Africa. Hopefully Barry, Michelle, and the kids will have a good time

Well, I agree, the no White House tour thing is just a spiteful reaction to being shown that we don't really need to spend as much money as we do - kinda like a sore loser when we were kids who would take the ball away when he didn't get his way. But as for protecting the President in Africa when he's doing his job, hey, it's never going to be cheap to do so. Probably why we don't see him take trips to Africa every year.

I'm not implying that when a president travels in difficult economic times he should trade in the Caddy's for Kia's. I'm reading about the White House saying there's so much "bang for the buck" on this trip, yet there really isn't a lot of substance in this aside from it being a goodwill trip. Bush and Clinton took trips like these as well, but not when we had severe economic issues, a sequester, NSA intrusions, IRS scandals, looming healthcare reform, etc. that really should ground a president to fully address domestic concerns.

[UNI88]

Well, I agree, the no White House tour thing is just a spiteful reaction to being shown that we don't really need to spend as much money as we do - kinda like a sore loser when we were kids who would take the ball away when he didn't get his way. But as for protecting the President in Africa when he's doing his job, hey, it's never going to be cheap to do so. Probably why we don't see him take trips to Africa every year.

I'm not implying that when a president travels in difficult economic times he should trade in the Caddy's for Kia's. I'm reading about the White House saying there's so much "bang for the buck" on this trip, yet there really isn't a lot of substance in this aside from it being a goodwill trip. Bush and Clinton took trips like these as well, but not when we had severe economic issues, a sequester, NSA intrusions, IRS scandals, looming healthcare reform, etc. that really should ground a president to fully address domestic concerns.

I'd like to see a comparison of costs and support activities for trips of the last 3-4 Presidents. Is parking a aircraft carrier off the coast standard?

Based on the current economic situation, Obama should cut back on his travel in order to save money and maybe the wife and kids don't need to come with him to reduce expenses.

[Ibanez]

You can't get a White House tour because we're under a sequester, but we can park an aircraft carrier off the coast with constant fighter jet support for a week? Yeah, seems like responsible spending for me, since we have so much to gain in Senegal/Tanzania/South Africa. Hopefully Barry, Michelle, and the kids will have a good time

You beat me to it. Michelle's 5 million taxpayer funded vacation would pay for about 70 weeks of White House Tours:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/20 ... 2-million/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If it were Romney, would you be bitching?




Exactly.

[Ibanez]

I'm not implying that when a president travels in difficult economic times he should trade in the Caddy's for Kia's. I'm reading about the White House saying there's so much "bang for the buck" on this trip, yet there really isn't a lot of substance in this aside from it being a goodwill trip. Bush and Clinton took trips like these as well, but not when we had severe economic issues, a sequester, NSA intrusions, IRS scandals, looming healthcare reform, etc. that really should ground a president to fully address domestic concerns.

I'd like to see a comparison of costs and support activities for trips of the last 3-4 Presidents. Is parking a aircraft carrier off the coast standard?

Based on the current economic situation, Obama should cut back on his travel in order to save money and maybe the wife and kids don't need to come with him to reduce expenses.

This.

[Ibanez]

http://www.ntu.org/ntuf/incredible-journey.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


This link has some interesting charts of how many trips each president took and when.

[Ibanez]

During Bush’s second term alone, Laura Bush made five “goodwill” trips to Africa. President Bush made the trip twice during his presidency. Here is former First Lady Bush at an event the night before their trip in 2008, “Tomorrow, President Bush and I leave for what will be my fifth trip to Africa since 2001, and his second trip to Africa since 2001. I’ve seen the determination of the people across Africa — and the compassion of the people of the United States of America.” Wow, that’s a lot of trips to Africa. In 2007, Laura Bush also took her daughters with her, and they went on a safari. You know, the same kind of outing that President Obama just canceled.

Not much was going right for George W. Bush. Even before the economy crashed, his legacy was 9/11, the unpopular Iraq invasion, and Hurricane Katrina. Back in 2003, Bush laid the groundwork for making aid to Africa his legacy. One of the areas where Bush drew praise was that he spent billions of taxpayer dollars on aid to Africa. It’s funny how conservatives don’t utter a peep about George W. Bush dishing out more than ten times the amount of taxpayer money on aid than Obama will spend on his trip.

Why could the country afford to spend billions of dollars during Bush’s no growth economy, but they can’t afford to spend at least $60 million for the sitting president to travel today?

Giving aid to Africa to combat malaria and AIDS is a very noble cause. It literally saves lives, but 5 goodwill visits to Africa aren’t cheap. Laura Bush wasn’t flying all alone on a commercial flight. Her trips cost the taxpayers a pretty penny. For some odd reason, the GAO (General Accounting Office) records on the cost of the Bush family’s Africa travels seem to have vanished. The media has contacted the GAO, but no specific numbers have been provided yet. President Clinton’s Africa trip in 1998 cost taxpayers $42.8 million. George W. Bush’s two trips five and ten years later were likely more expensive.

The Washington Post story didn’t say that Obama’s trip will cost $100 million, but that the trip could cost $60-100 million, and that the cost was based on similar African trips made in recent years, “Obama’s trip could cost the federal government $60 million to $100 million based on the costs of similar African trips in recent years, according to one person familiar with the journey, who was not authorized to speak for attribution.”
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=756_1371 ... AMCR1te.99" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Excuse the source...

[houndawg]

You can't get a White House tour because we're under a sequester, but we can park an aircraft carrier off the coast with constant fighter jet support for a week? Yeah, seems like responsible spending for me, since we have so much to gain in Senegal/Tanzania/South Africa. Hopefully Barry, Michelle, and the kids will have a good time

You beat me to it. Michelle's 5 million taxpayer funded vacation would pay for about 70 weeks of White House Tours:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/20 ... 2-million/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The butthurt is strong in this one, Obi-wan.

[BDKJMU]

You beat me to it. Michelle's 5 million taxpayer funded vacation would pay for about 70 weeks of White House Tours:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/20 ... 2-million/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

If it were Romney, would you be bitching?




Exactly.

If he was spending that amount of $ to go look up his family roots, and there was still a depressed economy, still sequestration, no White House Tours, etc, etc, yes I would.

[Bronco]

-

Via The Hill:
President Obama’s $100 million trip to African offers “great bang for our buck,” the White House said.
“Frankly, there will be a great bang for our buck for being in Africa, because when you travel to regions like Africa that don’t get a lot of presidential attention, you can have

“If everybody took an attitude of shared sacrifice, we could solve our deficit and debt problem next week.”
-Barack Obama August 2011

right before he went on a 10 day vacation at Martha's Vineyard

White House cancels Obama's African safari after plans are revealed to include a military SNIPER
dailymail.co.uk ^ | 13 June, 2013 | David Martosko

President and Mrs. Obama are planning a trip to sub-Saharan Africa later in the month, but the White House has scotched a plan to include a Tanzanian safari on the agenda after a reporter revealed that a team of snipers with high-powered military assault rifles would accompany him in the wild.

The Washington Post reported Thursday afternoon that the itinerary's dangers 'would have required the president’s special counterassault team to carry sniper rifles with high-caliber rounds that could neutralize cheetahs, lions or other animals if they became a threat.'

Are all the relatives going again?

[93henfan]

One of these kids is not like the others. Can you tell which one it is? Oh, one of these kids is doing his own thing...

Yo cracka! Keep your eyes to the front when you be driving us around.

[CAA Flagship]

-

Handjob in row 3?

[bluehenbillk]

Amazing all the "Paula Deen racists" that come up with this crap. Name one modern-day President that didn't make trips like this, just one....