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Old 12-20-2014, 07:07 PM
 
11,181 posts, read 10,495,811 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by lizardspock View Post
She wants a "legit" website. You know, Fox News, Breitbart, WND, etc.
Thank you for that, I finally realize that I'm just spinning my wheels in the OP's mud.

 
Old 12-20-2014, 07:30 PM
 
5,661 posts, read 3,507,890 times
Reputation: 5155
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Christmas vacation: Obamas get trip to Hawaii, taxpayers get ‘jelly-of-the-month’ club

By Malia Zimmerman / December 18, 2013 / No Comments

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AP file photo
FAMILY TRADITION: Since first winning the White House in 2008, the first family has vacationed in President Obama’s native Hawaii during the Christmas season.

By Malia Zimmerman | Watchdog.org

KAILUA, Hawaii – The presidential family will soon be vacationing in Hawaii.

It’s a holiday tradition for the Obamas, who have visited Kailua each year since 2008. The president and his friends pay rent for the 17-day trip, about $25,000 per week.

Taxpayers pay for most everything else, about $4 million, based on what we know.

Just call it another holiday tradition, of sorts, one that Clark W. Griswold would surely appreciate. The Obamas get a bonus while taxpayers get the bill, akin to an annual membership in the metaphoric jelly-of-the-month club.

It breaks down like this:

The 18-hour roundtrip aboard Air Force One costs $179,750 per hour for flight and operations — $3,235,500 total, estimates Michael Tasselmyer of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation ,

A Congressional Research Service report released in May 2012 mirrors those estimates. The cost for a C-17 jet carrying presidential limos, helicopters and other support equipment to Hawaii has never been disclosed. But the roundtrip flight time from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland and Hawaii is 21.5 hours, with estimated operating costs of $12,000 per hour, according to a Government Accountability Officereport.


RELAX: View from the Moana Surfrider Hotel in Waikiki where the White House staff stays while the first family is in Hawaii.

The U.S. Marine Corps provides a presidential helicopter, along with pilots and support crews for the test flights, which travel on another C-17. That costs $258,000, not including per diem and hotel for the four- to six-member crew. U.S. Secret Service, Navy Seals and Coast Guard members rent homes along the canal and ocean for $250 per room per night, according to people who rent the houses.

A real estate source said the delegation, which arrives before the president, rents at least seven homes in the area, costing taxpayers more than $183,750.

White House staff who don’t stay in Kailua stay at the posh Moana Surfrider, a Westin Resort & Spa on Waikiki Beach . Hotel rooms typically rent for $670 a night, but the hotel offers discounted government rates for about $255, according to hotel public relations manager Diana Su .

The Air Force flies in 22 vehicles so the president can golf, attend a basketball game with friends at Punahou School —Obama’s alma mater — or visit favorite restaurants such as Nobu’s and Buzz’s Steakhouse. Honolulu Police on special duty are paid $250,000 — another $10,000 is spent on an around-the-clock ambulance detail.


PAYING FOR THE VIEW: The first family enjoys sunrises like these when they vacation in Kailua over the Christmas holidays

The White House annually refuses to disclose the cost of several things, citing security. Such as:

An entire floor of an office building in Kailua on the canal during the president’s stay.
Security upgrades, such as bulletproof glass and additional phone lines added to private homes; existing security systems are disabled.
Rental cars and fuel for staff and security, as well as additional costs for Secret Service and White House staff traveling ahead of the president.
Because of emergency budget negotiations last year, the president made two round trips from Washington, D.C., to Hawaii, nearly doubling the cost of the vacation — more than $7.2 million .

Judicial Watch in May sued the Secret Service to “obtain records concerning use of U.S. Government funds to provide security and any other services to President Obama and any companions on their January 1 and 2, 2013, trip to Honolulu, Hawaii.”

The case, Judicial Watch v. U.S. Secret Service , continues, but there is nothing new, Judicial Watch spokeswoman Jill Farrell said this week.

The lawsuit, based on a Hawaii Reporter and Watchdog.org report that detailed the cost of the 2012 Christmas vacation, was filed after the Secret Service failed to provide information to Judicial Watch in response to a Jan. 2 Freedom of Information Act request.

“As of May 6, the Secret Service had yet to produce any record,” Judicial Watch said in a May 2013 statement.

Contact Malia Zimmerman at Malia@hawaiireporter.co m
 
Old 12-20-2014, 08:50 PM
 
Location: Secure, Undisclosed
1,984 posts, read 1,694,064 times
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If you can get a C-17 for $12,000 per hour, I'LL rent it. That number is hideously low...

(I used to be in that business and my wife was C-17 aircrew.)
 
Old 12-20-2014, 09:03 PM
 
28,619 posts, read 18,658,429 times
Reputation: 30894
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rescue3 View Post
If you can get a C-17 for $12,000 per hour, I'LL rent it. That number is hideously low...

(I used to be in that business and my wife was C-17 aircrew.)
That's a military C-17. That figure probably is only the amount over the cost of the normal training appropriation for the aircraft and crew. Remember that the crew would be required to fly X number of hours every month for proficiency--money that is part of the Maintenance and Ops budget. The quoted figure is probably an amount over the budget for time beyond the normal proficiency time.
 
Old 12-20-2014, 09:03 PM
 
Location: Vallejo
21,700 posts, read 24,920,758 times
Reputation: 18970
In breaking news, Atlanta has just learned that the USSS exists. Let's all give him a round of applause.
 
Old 12-20-2014, 09:08 PM
 
31,934 posts, read 14,933,222 times
Reputation: 13577
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atalanta View Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/1..._n_6318480.htm

He gets his Christmas Vacation again!!
While most Americans are working thru Christmas and New Years to feed their families and pay their rent.
Or pay for their health.
And along with the state this country is in!!


No way would my conscious let me do that.
His wife , and himself should be doing something along the lines of a public servants.
That's what they are, all politicians.
Maybe at the food shelf or ???


President Barack Obama and his family are scheduled to spend their seventh straight Christmas in Hawaii, according to the White House.

The first family will leave Washington on Dec. 19 for Honolulu on the island of Oahu, according to the White House press office. In the past, the family has stayed on the east side of the island in the upscale town of Kailua, about 45 minutes from tourist-heavy Waikiki. They've stayed in the same $3,500-a-day, beachside rental home for the past three years.

The Obamas have a fairly predictable Hawaii itinerary by now, featuring golf, shave ice, snorkeling trips to Hanauma Bay and dinners out at Alan Wong's.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) told The New York Times that the annual trip is a sanctuary for the president, who spent most of his childhood in Hawaii. “One of the reasons that the president, I think, likes it here is that he can have a sense of normalcy, even within his security bubble,” Schatz said last year. “He can still feel, perhaps, like he did when he was a teenager, just for a few moments at a time.”

Last year, the only holiday surprise from the Obama family came when the president and his daughters returned to D.C. after two weeks, and Michelle Obama stayed in Hawaii. At her husband's suggestion, the first lady went to Maui ahead of her 50th birthday to spend time on Oprah Winfrey's 17-acre estate.

Not sure what the problem is. He goes to his home state for christmas. Tell me, what presidents haven't gone to their home state for the holidays. Is it because it's Hawaii lol
 
Old 12-20-2014, 09:11 PM
 
5,661 posts, read 3,507,890 times
Reputation: 5155
Quote:
Originally Posted by biscuitmom View Post
Youhavegottobekiddingme.

It's a PDF of the Official Congressional Research Service Report.

You can read or download it at hundreds of libraries and institutions throughout the country.
Here, I'll help you out: UNT Digital Library: Government Documents Department.

(CRS is the public policy research arm of Congress. This legislative branch agency works exclusively for Members of Congress, their committees and their staffs. For more information, visit the CRS website.)

No, I was not kidding.

You posted a document without a link.
In was curious where it came from.
Your choice to get defensive.

Also, IF it falls under posting rules here, one has to post the link.
 
Old 12-20-2014, 09:14 PM
 
5,661 posts, read 3,507,890 times
Reputation: 5155
Quote:
Originally Posted by lycos679 View Post
If the Congressional Research Service isn't legitimate enough for you what will you accept?
Lycos, now I wouldnt know that would I without biscuit posting the link would I.
Biscuit just posted a link to a typed up letter
 
Old 12-20-2014, 09:18 PM
 
Location: Bel Air, California
23,769 posts, read 28,933,980 times
Reputation: 37326
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atalanta View Post
...Biscuit just posted a link to a typed up letter
right, and how do we know the words on the letter even mean what the guy who put them there intended for them to mean what you all think they mean....know what I mean?
 
Old 12-20-2014, 09:19 PM
 
11,768 posts, read 10,234,130 times
Reputation: 3444
Quote:
Originally Posted by Atalanta View Post
Lycos, now I wouldnt know that would I without biscuit posting the link would I.
Biscuit just posted a link to a typed up letter
A letter typed up by the CRS.

Presidential Travel: Policy and Costs
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