Barack Obama’s $7 million Hawaii vacation

Barack Obama’s $7 million Hawaii vacation is an insult to America’s struggling middle class

By Nile Gardiner
World

Barack Obama: making sacrifices for his country?

$16.4 trillion – that’s the latest figure for America’s massive national debt. Nearly $6 trillion of this debt was racked up in the first term of the Obama presidency – a 50 percent increase.
It is horrifying to imagine what the debt will be when Obama leaves the
White House in 2016, unless Congress has the willpower to stand in the
way.

Meanwhile, as the world’s superpower is literally drowning in debt,
President Obama is basking in the warmth of the beaches of Hawaii, at an exclusive resort
way beyond the financial reach of most Americans. The president pays
the cost of his own family’s accommodations, but there are a large
number of associated costs which are paid from the public purse.

What is the actual cost of Obama’s lavish vacation to the American
taxpayer? A staggering $7 million, according to veteran White House
reporter Keith Koffler, who wrote in his blog earlier this week:

<blockquote>In a move that is rich in irony, President Obama agreed
Tuesday night to sign an emergency deficit reduction bill that does
almost nothing to rein in spending and then jetted out to Hawaii to
resume his vacation at an extra cost of more than $3 million to
taxpayers.

The price tag is in addition to more than $4 million that is already
being spent on the Obamas’ Hawaii idyll, bringing the total cost of the
excursion to well over $7 million.

The added cost was incurred because by the time the Obamas return
from Hawaii – whenever that is – the president will have used Air Force
One to travel to Honolulu and back twice.
</blockquote>
The White House doesn’t like to publish the costs of presidential vacations, but Koffler has done the sums:

<blockquote>Air Force One is known to cost about $180,000 an hour to
fly. Based on an estimated 18 hours roundtrip flying time for the jet
between Washington and Honolulu, the travel cost alone of Obama’s
decision to return to Hawaii amounts to around $3.24 million. And that
doesn’t include the price tag for the massive security operation
required to move the president or the cost of the cargo plane that
follows Air Force One around.
</blockquote>
As Koffler notes, President Obama could easily have saved taxpayers a good deal of money:

<blockquote>The Obamas could have saved taxpayers millions by
returning from Hawaii together after Christmas and then resuming their
vacation at one of the many ritzy resorts that lie outside of
Washington. If the beach is a must, even a trip to Florida would have
been far less expensive.

Or they could have simply stayed at the White House or Camp David,
each a luxurious government-run installation, billing taxpayers a
relative pittance.
</blockquote>
According to Koffler,
"the total cost to taxpayers of Obama’s vacations to Hawaii since
becoming president is likely in excess of $20 million, and possibly
much, much more."

The message this sends is one of sheer contempt for the American
taxpayer. $7 million may be viewed by the White House as a drop in the
ocean compared to the overall size of America’s federal debt, but it is
the principle that counts. The vast majority of American people simply
couldn’t afford the kind of vacation enjoyed by the US president, not
least at a time when 12.2 million Americans are still out of work.

For most of America’s embattled middle class, who, unlike the
president have already returned to work, this kind of luxury is simply
unimaginable in the current economic climate. And they’ve just been hit
hard with a significant rise in their payroll taxes due to the
expiration of the Social Security tax break. According to the Tax Policy
Center, 77 percent of US households will now be paying more in federal taxes following this week’s fiscal cliff deal.

Barack Obama benefits from a largely deferential liberal press in the
United States which rarely questions his opulence in office. It would
be unthinkable for the British prime minister to act in the same manner.
If David Cameron flew off to Hawaii and billed the British public £5
million for his Christmas vacation, he would be out of a job.

President Obama frequently calls on the American people to make
sacrifices, but he is simply unwilling to lead by example and do so
himself. In a speech in Virginia back in April 2011, Obama famously declared:

<blockquote>We are going to have to ask everybody to sacrifice. And
if we’re asking community colleges to sacrifice, if we’re asking people
who are going to see potentially fewer services in their neighborhoods
to make a little sacrifice, then we can ask millionaires and
billionaires to make a little sacrifice.
</blockquote>
The president is elected to serve his country, rather than lord over
it, a message which appears to be completely lost on the present White
House. The federal government is simply running out of money, and
America faces economic ruin unless spending is cut dramatically and the
vast entitlements system is reformed. Barack Obama’s Hawaii vacation is
merely a symbol of his wider presidency – a culture of impunity and
extraordinary arrogance, reckless spending, a striking lack of
accountability, and a shameless let them eat cake mentality. America’s
middle class deserves to be treated better than this from a president
who fails to practice what he preaches.


Source:-
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/nilegardiner/100196479/barack-obamas-7-million-hawaii-vacation-is-an-insult-to-americas-struggling-middle-class/