2016 has marked a very interesting year for American politics and with 2016 coming to a close, we take some time to reflect on a very interesting an highly scrutinized aspect of the American Presidency: Family vacations. According to Judicial Watch, in the 8 year presidency term, the Obama family spent…wait for it…..$96,938,882.51!!! “The reports contains information regarding Obama’s Earth Day trip to the Florida Everglades, a political fundraising trip to San Diego, Michelle Obama’s annual Aspen ski trip, her trip to Morocco, a family vacation in Martha’s Vineyard, as well as Hillary’s ride with Obama on Air Force One to North Carolina.”
Some of the Obama family’s highest-priced trips over the 8-year span:
- Secret Service records reveal that Barack Obama’s April 22, 2015, Earth Day trip to give a global warming speech in the Florida Everglades cost taxpayers $145,752.36, which brings the total cost of the trip to at least $1,012,367.76.
- The Secret Service records for Obama’s October 2015 fundraising travel to San Diego reveal expenses totaling $180,187.09. Including the U.S. Air Force expenses, the total cost of Obama’s San Diego trip was at least $2,181,655.99.
- Michelle Obama’s February 2016 ski trip to Aspen with her daughters cost taxpayers a total of $222,875.58. The Secret Service expenses were $165,806.78. Judicial Watch previously obtained records from the Air Force revealing that Michelle Obama’s weekend trip to Aspen, Colorado, last year cost American taxpayers $57,068.80 in travel expenses alone for the 7.4-hour round-trip flight.
- Judicial Watch obtained records from the U.S. Air Force and the Secret Service revealing that Barack Obama’s trip to Cuba and Argentina in March 2016 cost taxpayers $7,146,015.18 in Secret Service and Air Force travel expenses.
According to Fortune, “flying like the president doesn’t come cheap. Operating expenses total $206,337 for every hour the president’s plane is in the air. The average domestic round-trip airline fare in the U.S. is $361, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. This means more than 571 plane tickets could be purchased for the price of operating Air Force One for an hour.”
Judicial Watch estimates that the final costs of Obama’s unnecessary vacation and political travel will well exceed $100 million. Wow…I don’t know about you, but I’m tempted to run for President in 2020!
Perhaps our author should provide context for such figures, rather than leaving the impression that President Obama was somehow spending too many days on vacation. Compared to President George W. Bush’s 533 days of vacation, President Obama’s 288 days are quite reasonable. President Obama vacationed most often in Hawaii and also had to spend for hotels/private homes, unlike President Bush who most often vacationed at his own ranch in Texas or his parent’s compound in Maine. Either way, that puts President Obama’s $90 million on holidays over his 8 years as being extremely reasonable…and only half the time spent on holiday as Bush.
Source: http://www.dailywire.com/news/11989/how-much-has-all-obamas-vacationing-cost-taxpayers-james-barrett
Thanks for your comment. This post was not meant to be a historical comparison of presidents but more of an interesting-to-know as a taxpayer.
I would have rather Obama spent 365 days a year on vacation at the Bush ranch. That way he wouldn’t have screwed up this country in the most cost effective manner lol!
Bullshit. This was not an interesting-to-know post. This was an indictment of Obama, using a bullshit and tired trope. Call it what it is: a political post on a travel blog.
You are correct!
Nonsense—Or should I say alternative Fact? If you’re really not interested in historical comparison then focus on the current number and costs for this administration. I’m all up for a genuine comparison of expenses, but you’re cherry picking and not even owning it.
The context was dollars spent not days…no way to justify 90+ million of the people’s money as “reasonable”…I believe this correlates to the unethical lavish spending of the people’s money by other government departments as well…and enough about Bush for crying out loud!
Total cost of the President’s ‘unnecessary vacation’
Uhm really? Didn’t know we came to this site for political hit pieces! Thanks Boardingarea brought to you by Drudge
I’m sure you have no complaints about the countless trump bashing posts on boarding area.
if election is to determine the lesser of 2 evils then this is unnecessary vacation for a necessary evil.
I can think of a lot of choice words in response to this click bait. Instead, I’ll suggest you read this:
http://www.factcheck.org/2011/07/the-traveling-president/
Can you find the travel expenses of any other prior president? No. It’s not because Obama’s was off the charts.
Garbage blogging
*click* *click* Unsubscribe.
Interesting, silly and quaint post. Trump is costing NYC alone about a million dollars a day as a consequence of his making NYC his version of the White House. If he makes it 4 years, that’ll be over 1.4 billion dollars–to NYC. More if you factor in federal expenses! I guess there is a place for government spending after all.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/11/21/news/protecting-donald-trump/
Given the sensitivity around politics this year, I’d have to say you’re either incredibly stupid, or you’re trying to stir the pot for some illogical reason.
PS Given that Obama took fewer vacation days than GWB, yet he’s apparently known on the alt-right as being on vacation practically all the time, and given that you felt compelled to perpetuate that idea, I’m going to guess you’re on the alt-right, and therefore I now consider this to be an alt-right blog.
the Cuba trip was a diplomatic one and on behalf of Americans, you ducking moron. Stick to peddling referrals.
Do you plan on reporting on how much tax payers are paying for security to shut down 5th Ave in NYC right now? If not, then you’re a partisan hack. See if Fox News will accept you as a guest.
You’re an ignorant Trump supporter obviously. A truly biased dumb post. Obama was extremely successful in reducing the deficit massively, creating more than double the jobs Bush did, ended wars and brought unemployment to virtually the lowest possible. Good luck with Trump you bigot.
Judicial Watch is anything but a non-partisan entity. They are a bunch of hard core right wing nut jobs and Mr. Bortz is either a puppet or a dope to use it as the basis of anything Mr. Bortz rights. At a lowly $1 million dollars a day that Trump costs NYC, Trump will have surpassed Obama’s costs for 8 years (if you can believe Judicial Watch which I have big problems with) by no later than 2/16/17….And he will have been in office for less than one month vs Obama’s 8 years.
Why isn’t Mr. Bortz writing his story form the angle of “Trump on track to spend more on travel costs borne by taxpayers in 100 days in office vs President Obama in his 8 years”. And then actually do a bit of investigation to plot out what the costs of 4 or 8 years with Trump will be. It’ll be just like draining the swamp. He assails Clinton for talking to Goldman Sachs and now he has 3 Goldman Sachs people running the Treasury. He conned the nation and Mr. Bortz. I respectfully suggest Mr. Bortz actually consider his work before publishing such crap in the future. Thanks