FROM JUDICIAL WATCH .COM OBAMA JET-SETTING COSTS TAXPAYERS President Obama enjoyed several taxpayer-funded junkets over this past Labor Day weekend that appear quite detached from the people’s business. That’s what the travel records we obtained from the U.S. Air Force show. The president ran up over $1.5 million in expenses for his weekend trips. So let’s dig into how he spent his time on the taxpayer dime. He began his money-raising venture by heading to Westchester, New York, on Friday, August 29. While in New York, Obama attended two fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee, one of them a BBQ at the home of former UBS CEO Robert Wolf. Obama later that day took off for Providence, Rhode Island, for a fundraiser at the private residence of former Nortek CEO Richard Bready and Betty Easton, where tickets cost up to $32, 400.The Bready/Easton event was Obama’s ninth fundraiser for the DNC this year. Although the president was initially scheduled to fly back to Westchester, New York, that Friday night, and then return to D.C. after attending the wedding of White House chef Sam Kass to MSNBC host Alex Wagner, he made some last minute changes. Obama flew to D.C. for the night on Friday and then flew back to New York on Saturday. Apparently, it was necessary for Obama to “sleep in his own bed, do a little work…, spend time with his family and then travel to New York,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained. The difference in cost for Obama’s last minute change amounted to $295,227.80 more in taxpayer expenses. And that is nearly six times what the average American makes in a year – an amount which, critics would argue not so coincidentally, has actually fallen 8% since Obama became president. Here’s an additional breakdown of the travel expenses: Flights for Obama’s 2014 Labor Day weekend fundraising trips to Westchester, New York, and Providence, Rhode Island, cost taxpayers $527,192.50 Transportation for Obama’s round-trip flight from D.C. to Westchester, New York, to attend a wedding cost taxpayers $358,490.90 The flight for Obama’s trip to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to give a highly charged political speech at “Laborfest 2014” cost taxpayers $653,718.70 The documents detailing these expenses came in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on September 2, 2014 – a very simple request that took nearly three months for the Obama administration to answer. All told, Obama ran up $1,539,402.10 in expenses. The abuse of travel privileges within the federal government certainly did not begin with Obama, though he has certainly taken it to record highs. In 2007, the General Accountability Office put out a 50-page report highlighting abusive travel spending by over a dozen federal agencies. The report focused on travels that took place between July 2005 and June 2006. The results were disconcerting, as the report found AT LEAST $146 MILLION WORTH IN TRAVEL WAS UNAUTHORIZED OR UNJUSTIFIED. The State Department was among the worst offenders racking up almost $180,000 in unauthorized premium class travel in just six months. Federal rules say government employees must fly coach unless the flight takes longer than 14 hours or the employee received agency approval based upon a legitimate and documented medical condition. Other exceptions include security concerns or lack of availability of coach seats. Needless to say, these rules have not been tightly observed or enforced in recent years. Members of Congress have been fully complicit in this abuse. Each year, many of them travel abroad to visit military bases, meet with foreign officials and attend a variety of conferences on what are most commonly known as “political junkets.” In 2008, federal lawmakers spent $13 million on these excursions, according to a newspaper analysis. (Judicial Watch has long monitored this wasteful congressional travel and helped ground Air Pelosi. Our reporting on then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) travel abuses caused her successor, Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) to disavow the use of government planes to get him back and forth to Ohio.) So from bureaucrats to congressmen to the President of the United States your tax dollars are happily misused. Certainly, Obama’s Labor Day back-and-forth shows President Obama seems to confuse Air Force One with Uber. President Obama abuses not only taxpayers with this unnecessary travel – he strains an already overstretched military and a Secret Service that is in crisis and can’t even guard the front door of the White House. The new Congress could do worse than to reform presidential travel so that taxpayers aren’t gouged by candidates and campaigns benefitting from the political use of Air Force One.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 10:34:37 +0000
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