Yes, they tell people to save, yet they spend, spend, spend. Material girl Michelle Obama is a modern-day Marie Antoinette on a glitzy Spanish vacation. Sacrifice is something that many Americans are becoming all too familiar with during this economic downturn. It was a key theme in President Obama's inaugural address to the nation, and he's referenced it numerous times when lecturing the country on how to get back on its feet. But while most of the country is pinching pennies and downsizing summer sojourns - or forgoing them altogether - the Obamas don't seem to be heeding their own advice. While many of us are struggling, the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her "closest friends." According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort. Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times. Reports are calling the lodgings of Obama's Spanish fiesta, the Hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella, "luxurious," "posh" and "a millionaires' playground." Estimated room rate per night? Up to a staggering $2,500. Method of transportation? Air Force Two. To be clear, what the Obamas do with their money is one thing; what they do with ours is another. Transporting and housing the estimated 70 Secret Service agents who will flank the material girl will cost the taxpayers a pretty penny. Perhaps it could be that the Obamas, who seem to fancy themselves more along the lines of international celebrities than actual leaders, espouse a different view of sacrifice. When Michelle Obama accompanied her husband to Copenhagen along with best buddy Oprah Winfrey, she billed the trip - an ultimately unsuccessful bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago - as follows: "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the President to come for these few days, so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home." A quick jaunt to Denmark is a sacrifice? What portraits in courage! The Obama modus operandi is becoming clear. From lavish trips to Spain to reportedly flying Bo, the President's Portuguese water dog, on a separate aircraft to vacation with them in Maine, to a date night in New York City that perhaps cost nearly $100,000, their idea of austerity is really just the lap of luxury, at least for ordinary folks. Incredibly, the Obamas have long portrayed themselves as precisely such commoners. Just this month, Obama told ABC the First Couple is "not that far removed from what most Americans are going through." And that "it was just a few years ago that we had high credit card balances, we had two kids, thinking about college. We had our own retirement accounts, wondering if we were going to be able to get enough assets in there." If that's true, why not select a more appropriate destination like the California coast? The scenery is just as gorgeous as that of Spain, and instead of patronizing a foreign country they would be pumping money into an American economy that desperately needs it. Camp David wouldn't exactly be slumming it, either. A long weekend there would really send a message of responsibility, leadership and compassion. For a couple that has sharply criticized former President George W. Bush so widely, they could stand to follow his example for once and select a more low-key locale, as Bush regularly did in his Texas vacations. Instead, Michelle Obama seems more like a modern-day Marie Antoinette - the French queen who spent extravagantly on clothes and jewels without a thought for her subjects' plight - than an average mother of two. While she's spent her time in the White House telling parents they should relieve their chubby kids' dependency on sugar and stressing the importance of an organic veggie garden, hopping a jet to Europe to meet with Spanish royalty isn't the visual the White House probably wants to project. Perhaps they've forgotten the damning image of John Kerry, on the eve of the 2004 election, windsurfing off the coast of Nantucket? I don't begrudge anyone rest and relaxation when they work hard. We all need downtime - the First Family included. It's the extravagance of Michelle Obama's trip and glitzy destination contrasted with President Obama's demonization of the rich that smacks of hypocrisy and perpetuates a disconnect between the country and its leaders. Toning down the flash would humanize the Obamas and signify that they sympathize with the setbacks of the people they were elected to serve. In January, President Obama insisted that "everybody in the country is going to have to sacrifice something, accept change for the greater good. Everybody is going to have to give. Everybody is going to have to have some skin in the game." If sacrifice is the precursor to change, what will the family that ran on change offer up? Elitist doublespeak won't cut it. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions...on_a_glitzy_spanish.html?page=1#ixzz0vr0LNtNh
http://www.dail*****.co.uk/news/wor...ach-Michelle-Obamas-250k-Spanish-holiday.html 250,000 pounds is what they are saying it costs the american taxpayer. Thats about $400,000 dollars or the presidents salary for 1 year. If the USA was a publicly traded corporation, Michelle obama would be in jail right now. Imagine a company that is in financial trouble. The CEO is paid $400k per year. One day the CEOs wife decides to take a vacation to spain with 40 of her closest friends, but charges the bill to the company account. How is that not illegal? Does the president & his wife just get to spend taxpayer dollars as if taxpayers are their own personal income stream? Would she have taken this trip if she had to pay the whole thing on her own dime? I doubt it. This is a clear cut case of pure corruption.
Don't know how the first ladies vacation time adds up, but President Obama has a lot more trips to make up to catch G W Bush, about 70 trips worth.
Obama "officially" took 26 vacation days his first year in office, but that doesnt count all the "celebrity" stuff he does, like going on the tonight show, or an appearance on the View, shooting magazine covers, ect. If you add in all the stuff where he is not doing official government business, then his "vacation" days are probably the majority of his time in office. I dont remember Bush going on talk shows, or appearing on magazine covers unless it was a news magazine. I dont remember Bush in GQ, Vogue, Vibe, Rolling stone, Wired and likely a few others I dont know about.
You guys should be more upset with the expense of the Pelosi delegation to the UN Climate conference in Copenhagen than in what the First Family does. One of these two groups thinks that you (us) taxpayers are a never ending ATM, dispensing cash whenever they want. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/11/cbsnews_investigates/main6084364.shtml
This is a true case of misuse of the people's taxes. The money spent for her trips should have been used to fund projects that will help the people. No wonder the government wants to impose more taxes... this is clearly where portion of those taxes will go. Sigh...
From the CBS news story: Senator Inhofe (R-OK) is one of the few who provided us any detail. He attended the summit on his own for just a few hours, to give an "opposing view." Good job Senator!