Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I remember that speech he gave during his first term when he said that all Americans were going to have to "tighten their belts" and the White House had its own garden and I got really excited that maybe we were going to see a President who would cut down on the extravagant spending. Sigh.
Here we go with this nonsense...
When Bush was in office, we had the same ignorant comments, only coming from the other side.
Taxpayers foot the bill for presidential vacations.Presidents pay for their own and their families’ lodging, food and incidentals while on vacation, which may be why they generally prefer to stay at properties they own, as guests of wealthy friends or at the official presidential retreat at Camp David. But since presidential vacations are always working vacations, taxpayers cover what it takes to keep the commander in chief working. Lodging and meals are an extra cost, but taxpayers pay the salaries of White House staffers and Secret Service agents whether the president stays in Washington or not, so a presidential vacation does not significantly increase personnel costs. The biggest additional expense is the use of Air Force One and the support aircraft needed to haul all the equipment and ground transportation the president needs. The Congressional Research Service estimated that the cost of operating Air Force One is nearly $180,000 per hour. Ultimately, a presidential vacation can cost taxpayers an additional $1 million or considerably more than if the president had just stayed put in the White House. How significant this is within a $3.5 trillion federal budget is something voters can decide for themselves.
Every President needs and deserves vacations (plural). Unfortunately, with all of the added security that is needed any time any President, current or former, goes anyplace, the cost are astronomical. The current President is going to fly AF1, there is going to be a massive security detail needed, all of those people need rooms, board, etc, etc, all the locations need to be vetted before hand, logistics need to be worked out.
It is silly to point to any particular President and to gripe about their vacation time, for one thing, they all are still the President, no matter where they go, they still work where ever they are, it isn't like they ever REALLY get any time to relax. I am not a fan of this Pres, nor am I a fan of the last one, but I would not begrudge them for taking a vacation, and actually going someplace nice to try to at least get some R & R. We all need it.
Now, when something really big, like, say, a cat 5 hurricane has wiped out a massive portion of the Gulf Coast, causing death, and billions and billions of dollars of destruction, one might want to INTERRUPT their vacation and not leave rescue and recovery coordination in the hands of an inept and inexperienced FEMA head, but that is just my opinion.
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.
Most presidents take a Christmas vacation; do you complain when a Republican President takes a Christmas vacation? What about Congress who always seem to be out on vacation? Should no one in the government be allowed to take a vacation because other people have to work?
i have a general problem with the expense of presidential travel (among other things like the $1+ million budget for each congressman and the $4 million+ budget for senators). i think we need to set certain rules in stone in advance to limit the travel of the president whether it be fore personal or business travel. the reality is that our president doesnt really need to travel around the world for face to face meetings. he is just going to have to accept limits on vacations to pre-determined domestic stops or pre-determined budget limits.
Did you have this "problem" before Obama became president or after?
Unless you work in retail or critical services, you cannot take vacation this time of the year? We live in Florida and my husband schedules his vacation for 2 weeks at Christmas so we can go back to NY and see family. Yes, we DO NOT WANT to be in Florida this time of year. So Obama is from Hawaii and wants to got back to where he grew up? Why is that so difficult to understand?
Email
U.S. taxpayers spent nearly $16 million to fly the Obamas to, from and around Hawaii and Africa, Air Force records obtained by Judicial Watch show.
"The Obama family 2013-2014 vacation to Honolulu cost $210,877 per hour for travel alone; at 36.9 total hours, the cost to taxpayers for the vacation's flight expense was $7,781,361.30," Judicial Watch said in a statement, noting an increase of $3,695,006.10 from flight expenses for the Obamas' 2012-13 Hawaii Christmas vacation.
And you don't think other presidents before them have done the same??
I swear some of you just want a reason to ***** about this man no matter what he does.
I bet if you heard he was using two-ply toilet paper instead of one-ply you'd be complaining about how he doesn't care about trees or the environment.
Here we go with this nonsense...
When Bush was in office, we had the same ignorant comments, only coming from the other side.
Taxpayers foot the bill for presidential vacations.Presidents pay for their own and their families’ lodging, food and incidentals while on vacation, which may be why they generally prefer to stay at properties they own, as guests of wealthy friends or at the official presidential retreat at Camp David. But since presidential vacations are always working vacations, taxpayers cover what it takes to keep the commander in chief working. Lodging and meals are an extra cost, but taxpayers pay the salaries of White House staffers and Secret Service agents whether the president stays in Washington or not, so a presidential vacation does not significantly increase personnel costs. The biggest additional expense is the use of Air Force One and the support aircraft needed to haul all the equipment and ground transportation the president needs. The Congressional Research Service estimated that the cost of operating Air Force One is nearly $180,000 per hour. Ultimately, a presidential vacation can cost taxpayers an additional $1 million or considerably more than if the president had just stayed put in the White House. How significant this is within a $3.5 trillion federal budget is something voters can decide for themselves.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
