Michelle Obama in China: “Rare I have the chance to travel” Abroad: Obama’s Cost Taxpayers $1.4B, British Royal Family $58M Other than Michelle Obama’s trips to Kenya with her husband before he ascended to the Oval Office, I wonder how many opportunities she had to travel outside the U.S. I doubt there were many until she was graced with taxpayer funding. By mid 2013, Michelle had visited 14 foreign countries. In 2013, American taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on “perks” for the Obamas — “biggest staff in history at highest wages ever.” The British taxpayers were hit with only a mere $57.8 million to entertain their royal family. Don’t miss the Daily Caller info below. Remember who Michelle Obama was just before coming to Washington D.C. to received her taxpayer-paid make-over? Michelle Obama Before Taxpayers Bought a Stylist for Her During her visit to China, first lady Michelle Obama pointed out that the ability to travel outside of the United States was “rare” but that she chose China for a reason. “It’s very rare that I have the opportunity to travel outside of the United States, and it’s even more rare to have the opportunity to travel with three generations — with my daughters, and with my mother,” she said. “And it is no accident that one of our first trips as a family is here to China.” Daily Caller: Gray told The Daily Caller that the $1.4 billion spent on the Obama family last year is the “total cost of the presidency,” factoring the cost of the “biggest staff in history at the highest wages ever,” a 50 percent increase in the numbers of appointed czars and an Air Force One “running with the frequency of a scheduled air line.” “The most concerning thing, I think, is the use of taxpayer funds to actually abet his re-election,” Gray, who worked in the Eisenhower administration and for other Republican presidents, said in an interview with TheDC on Wednesday. “The press has been so slow in picking up on this extraordinary increase in the president’s expenses,” Gray told TheDC. (RELATED: Five shocking truths about Michelle Obama) Specifically, Gray said taxpayer dollars are subsidizing Obama’s re-election effort when he uses Air Force One to jet across the country campaigning. When the trip is deemed political, it’s customary for the president to pay the equivalent of a first class commercial ticket for certain passengers. But Gray says that hardly covers the taxpayer cost of flying the president and his staffers around on Air Force One. “When the United States’ billion-dollar air armada is being used politically, is it fair to taxpayers that we only be reimbursed by the president’s campaign committee for the value of one first-class commercial ticket for each passenger who is deemed aboard ‘for political purposes?’” Gray asks in the book. Source: Daily Caller But Obama doesn’t even pay his own first class ticket. He receives $100,000 for travel outside of his salary: “There is no mechanism for anyone’s objection if a president were to pay his chief of staff $5,000,000 a year,” he told TheDC. “And nothing but a president’s conscience can dissuade him from buying his own reelection with use of some public money.” Aside from a salary, the president gets a $50,000 a year expense account, a $100,000 travel account, $19,000 entertainment budget and an additional million for “unanticipated needs,” he notes. … …she [Michelle] spent 42 days on vacation — within the span of one year.”… The president has a full-time movie projectionist in the White House theater The president’s dog gets its own high-paid staffer More on what the president can do with your money for his family. By July 3, 2013, Michelle Obama had traveled to Britain, France, Germany, Czech Republic, Russia, Italy, Vatican, Ghana, Denmark, Norway, Haiti, Mexico, Spain, Indonesia, Brazil, Chile, El Salvadore, Ireland, Botswana, South Africa, The Bahamas, Senegal, and Tanzania — a total of 14 trips abroad by mid-2013. Seven of these trips are considered personal travel (which may have included Michelle arriving early or staying later). Laura Bush made 46 foreign trips and visited 73 countries in eight years. I’m thinking Michelle will pass that record, but the Bush’s spent most of their vacation time at Camp David and their Crawford, Texas home. Yes, taxpayers paid for the transportation to and from Crawford, but they didn’t pay hotel expenses for the Bush family. The Obama’s do own a home in Chicago, but they seldom visit. We pay hotel wherever the Obama’s go. Read about Michelle Obama’s Beiijing 3400 sq. ft. hotel room for herself, her mother and her daughters. Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks. In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family. Author Robert Keith Gray writes in “Presidential Perks Gone Royal” that Obama isn’t the only president to have taken advantage of the expensive trappings of his office. But the amount of money spent on the first family, he argues, has risen tremendously under the Obama administration and needs to be reined in. Gray told The Daily Caller that the $1.4 billion spent on the Obama family last year is the “total cost of the presidency,” factoring the cost of the “biggest staff in history at the highest wages ever,” a 50 percent increase in the numbers of appointed czars and an Air Force One “running with the frequency of a scheduled air line.” “The most concerning thing, I think, is the use of taxpayer funds to actually abet his re-election,” Gray, who worked in the Eisenhower administration and for other Republican presidents, said in an interview with TheDC on Wednesday. “The press has been so slow in picking up on this extraordinary increase in the president’s expenses,” Gray told TheDC. Specifically, Gray said taxpayer dollars are subsidizing Obama’s re-election effort when he uses Air Force One to jet across the country campaigning. When the trip is deemed political, it’s customary for the president to pay the equivalent of a first class commercial ticket for certain passengers. But Gray says that hardly covers the taxpayer cost of flying the president and his staffers around on Air Force One. “When the United States’ billion-dollar air armada is being used politically, is it fair to taxpayers that we only be reimbursed by the president’s campaign committee for the value of one first-class commercial ticket for each passenger who is deemed aboard ‘for political purposes?’” Gray asks in the book. “And is that bargain-price advantage fair to those opposing an incumbent president?” In the book, Gray admits Americans want their president to be safe and comfortable but argues the system should be reformed to stop the amount of unquestioned perks given to the president. “There is no mechanism for anyone’s objection if a president were to pay his chief of staff $5,000,000 a year,” he told TheDC. “And nothing but a president’s conscience can dissuade him from buying his own reelection with use of some public money.” Aside from a salary, the president gets a $50,000 a year expense account, a $100,000 travel account, $19,000 entertainment budget and an additional million for “unanticipated needs,” he notes. Here is a sample of other pricey taxpayer funded perks exclusively reserved for the president: The president can to appoint high-paid staffers without Senate confirmation: Obama has 469 senior staffers and 226 are paid more than $100,000 a year, according to the book. Seventy-seven are paid as much as $172,000 per year. He also has appointed 43 “czars.” The president can vacation for free at Camp David: Gray writes that each round trip made to Camp David costs the taxpayers $25,350. It’s also estimated that the combined transportation and personnel costs for a Camp David visit are $295,000 per night. The president has a full-time movie projectionist in the White House theater: Projectionists sleep at the White House and are there 24 hours a day in case anyone needs to see a movie. “Compared to the 450 times President Carter used the movie theater in his four years in the White House, the average American citizen, according to industry statistics, goes out to see a movie slightly less than five times a year,” Gray writes. The president’s family’s gets certain travel and security expenses paid while vacationing: “First Lady Michelle Obama drew flack from the media and irate citizens when it was disclosed that, not counting Saturdays and Sundays, she spent 42 days on vacation — within the span of one year.” The president’s dog gets its own high-paid staffer: “Bo made the news when he and his handler were flown to join the president on vacation in Maine,” Gray wrote about the Obama family dog. “It has been reported that the first family’s dog handler was paid $102,000, last year.”
Posted on: Mon, 24 Mar 2014 14:49:51 +0000
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