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Lavish Obama vacation in time of economic turmoil raises eyebrows

j-mac

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WASHINGTON — As the U.S. economy endures high unemployment and a jittery stock market, President Obama has preached sacrifice and fiscal discipline. But the pictures coming out of a sunsplashed Spanish resort this week may be sending a different message.

First lady Michelle Obama is on a five-day trip to a luxury resort along with a handful of friends, her younger daughter, Sasha, aides and Secret Service personnel. Her office said the first family will pay for personal expenses, but declined to reveal the taxpayer cost for the government employees. The president stayed home in the United States, as did daughter Malia, 12, who is at camp.

snip

The opulence of the European trip also has drawn scrutiny. Michelle Obama is staying at the Hotel Villa Padierna, a Ritz-Carlton resort in the mountains outside Marbella. The resort has two golf courses, a posh spa with Turkish baths, views of the Mediterranean Sea and a high-end restaurant specializing in avant-garde fare. Room rates start at $400 and rise to $6,500 for a two-bedroom villa with a private pool and 24-hour butler service.

snip

While her friends arrived in Spain on their own, Michelle Obama flew in on a type of aircraft also used by Vice President Joseph Biden. It costs the government $11,555 an hour to operate the plane, according to the Air Force. Assuming a nearly eight-hour flight to nearby Málaga, the total round-trip cost of the flight is about $178,000.


Good God! What the ****! People here are suffering the worst recession on memory, and Queen Obama is living the life of the rich and famous on our dime? Que Robin Leach!

The Obama family will reimburse the government an amount equal to two first-class tickets — for mother and daughter Sasha, Air Force officials said. A round-trip first-class flight to Málaga costs about $7,400 apiece, without discounts or restrictions.

Nation & World | Lavish Obama vacation in time of economic turmoil raises eyebrows | Seattle Times Newspaper


Oh, By all means then say no more! WOW! The arrogance of these people!

Let them eat cake!


j-mac
 
We really have turned the Presidency into royalty.
 
Oh, for the days of a leader like Bush who cared so much that literally 3 years of his presidency were spent on vacation.

487 Days At Camp David For Bush - Political Hotsheet - CBS News




Presidents take vacations. They also spend a lot of their vacation time working. Get over it.


This isn't about Presidential vacations, as far as I know the President is home for this one. This is about opulent spending without regard of how it appears to the people.


j-mac
 
I really don't think there would have been many complaints if the vacation was taken in the states with mostly Obama money. For crying out loud, who do they think they are? Obama complains that people are sitting on their money and not spending in an economic crisis and they spend their money like drunken sailors in other countries. Disgraceful.
 
This isn't about Bush. For God's sake STOP TALKING ABOUT HIM. He's not the damn president FOR OVER A YEAR! This is Barack Hussein Obama's mess. His wife takes a $400,000 vacation meeting with kings and movin' on up. He's been on vacation since he bought the election. We're ALL tired of them! We want them OUT of the White House!
 
This isn't about Bush. For God's sake STOP TALKING ABOUT HIM. He's not the damn president FOR OVER A YEAR! This is Barack Hussein Obama's mess. His wife takes a $400,000 vacation meeting with kings and movin' on up. He's been on vacation since he bought the election. We're ALL tired of them! We want them OUT of the White House!

The reason sometimes Bush is brought up, is because of the hypocrisy, some people vilify Obama for doing certain things that they said nothing about when Bush was in office.

What does it matter to you what the Obamas do in their own time with their own money minus security costs of course.

I thought the number was 250 000? Someone wanna get that story straight?

Meeting the king and queen of nations is always gonna happen, guess you don't like improving relations with allies?
 
The reason sometimes Bush is brought up, is because of the hypocrisy, some people vilify Obama for doing certain things that they said nothing about when Bush was in office.


Sometimes? You have got to be kidding here. Obama brings up Bush so much as a distraction, hell I thought he was still in office. On hypocrisy, it's called politics. You think only the right are hypocrites? :lol:


What does it matter to you what the Obamas do in their own time with their own money minus security costs of course.

Good God man read. The only thing that the article says about Obama using their money is the reimbursement of $7400. each Michelle and her daughter for air fare...Think the trip to Costa del Sol, staying at the ritz with a full security detachment, AF2, and accompanying planes, and 60 rooms at the low rate of $400. per night might be slightly more than that? Didn't you just talk about hypocrisy?


I thought the number was 250 000? Someone wanna get that story straight?

It's in the op at the top of the page, I am sure you can see it, without being snarky to a new member.

Meeting the king and queen of nations is always gonna happen, guess you don't like improving relations with allies?

I have no problem with her meeting dignitaries while there, I am just asking how many jobs is that creating here? any?


j-mac
 
like Bush's lavish vacations were not on Uncle Sam's dime.

Damn Liberals can't do nothing right!
 
like Bush's lavish vacations were not on Uncle Sam's dime.

Damn Liberals can't do nothing right!


Ok, I'll play...Lavish vacations by Bush to where? Oh, and just so we are on the same ground here, let's have you show where Mrs. Bush went, with the size and scope of what is going on here k?


j-mac
 
This isn't about Bush. For God's sake STOP TALKING ABOUT HIM. He's not the damn president FOR OVER A YEAR! This is Barack Hussein Obama's mess. His wife takes a $400,000 vacation meeting with kings and movin' on up. He's been on vacation since he bought the election. We're ALL tired of them! We want them OUT of the White House!

It's brought up because none of you bitched about these things when Bush was in office. You only bitch about them now that Obama is in office. How did so many of the exact same things become so offensive so suddenly to you?

The reason why all of your crap seems so disingenuous is because you all came crawling out of the woodwork right after the election in 2008 instead of rallying against the opulent, deficit-creating spending between 2000 and 2006.

I've literally heard people claim that TARP was Obama's bill (it wasn't). I've heard people claim that the Great Recession started under Obama (it didn't). I've heard people claim a ****-ton of things that are patently false now that Obama is in office. I've also heard people bitch about things that they used to defend when Bush did them.

It's called hypocrisy.

You're fine with two unfunded, unfinished wars that cost more than $1 trillion (before interest, mind you). But pissed off about a $250,000 vacation. It makes no sense.

Were you this pissed off when Bush took vacations - more than any other president in history? If not, why? Why were you not out there bitching about it then?

I'm pointing it out, honestly, because I'm trying to figure out why you hate this president so much but tolerated all the qualities you seem to dislike in him when they were exhibited by his predecessor?
 
It's brought up because none of you bitched about these things when Bush was in office. You only bitch about them now that Obama is in office. How did so many of the exact same things become so offensive so suddenly to you?

The reason why all of your crap seems so disingenuous is because you all came crawling out of the woodwork right after the election in 2008 instead of rallying against the opulent, deficit-creating spending between 2000 and 2006.

I've literally heard people claim that TARP was Obama's bill (it wasn't). I've heard people claim that the Great Recession started under Obama (it didn't). I've heard people claim a ****-ton of things that are patently false now that Obama is in office. I've also heard people bitch about things that they used to defend when Bush did them.

It's called hypocrisy.

You're fine with two unfunded, unfinished wars that cost more than $1 trillion (before interest, mind you). But pissed off about a $250,000 vacation. It makes no sense.

Were you this pissed off when Bush took vacations - more than any other president in history? If not, why? Why were you not out there bitching about it then?

I'm pointing it out, honestly, because I'm trying to figure out why you hate this president so much but tolerated all the qualities you seem to dislike in him when they were exhibited by his predecessor?


Think it has something to do with this...

Double Standard | Define Double Standard at Dictionary.com
 
It's brought up because none of you bitched about these things when Bush was in office. You only bitch about them now that Obama is in office. How did so many of the exact same things become so offensive so suddenly to you?

The reason why all of your crap seems so disingenuous is because you all came crawling out of the woodwork right after the election in 2008 instead of rallying against the opulent, deficit-creating spending between 2000 and 2006.

I've literally heard people claim that TARP was Obama's bill (it wasn't). I've heard people claim that the Great Recession started under Obama (it didn't). I've heard people claim a ****-ton of things that are patently false now that Obama is in office. I've also heard people bitch about things that they used to defend when Bush did them.

It's called hypocrisy.

You're fine with two unfunded, unfinished wars that cost more than $1 trillion (before interest, mind you). But pissed off about a $250,000 vacation. It makes no sense.

Were you this pissed off when Bush took vacations - more than any other president in history? If not, why? Why were you not out there bitching about it then?

I'm pointing it out, honestly, because I'm trying to figure out why you hate this president so much but tolerated all the qualities you seem to dislike in him when they were exhibited by his predecessor?





Can you link to these claims?


1st show where 75k was spent of our money per day in a recession for a 1st lady to galavant with 40 of her closest friends in a foreign country.
 
It's brought up because none of you bitched about these things when Bush was in office. You only bitch about them now that Obama is in office. How did so many of the exact same things become so offensive so suddenly to you?

The reason why all of your crap seems so disingenuous is because you all came crawling out of the woodwork right after the election in 2008 instead of rallying against the opulent, deficit-creating spending between 2000 and 2006.

I've literally heard people claim that TARP was Obama's bill (it wasn't). I've heard people claim that the Great Recession started under Obama (it didn't). I've heard people claim a ****-ton of things that are patently false now that Obama is in office. I've also heard people bitch about things that they used to defend when Bush did them.

It's called hypocrisy.

You're fine with two unfunded, unfinished wars that cost more than $1 trillion (before interest, mind you). But pissed off about a $250,000 vacation. It makes no sense.

Were you this pissed off when Bush took vacations - more than any other president in history? If not, why? Why were you not out there bitching about it then?

I'm pointing it out, honestly, because I'm trying to figure out why you hate this president so much but tolerated all the qualities you seem to dislike in him when they were exhibited by his predecessor?


Nonsense...Now we are supposed to believe that liberals all of the sudden are never hypocrites when it comes to politics? :roll:


j-mac
 
Executive travel is a yearly budgeted item and has been for many decades.
 
Executive travel is a yearly budgeted item and has been for many decades.


Is the First lady, and her entourage of 40 hand maidens the Executive of the United States? What formal reason is this trip? Look, stay on the same page libs....either this is a vacation, or it is a function of the President's office. Which one?


j-mac
 
I can't believe Republicans have sunk so low that they criticize Obama's wife for taking a vacation and for having the government pay. If you think this vacation has any affect on this country fiscally you are just plain stupid.
 
It's brought up because none of you bitched about these things when Bush was in office. You only bitch about them now that Obama is in office. How did so many of the exact same things become so offensive so suddenly to you?
Nonsense. I bitched about Laura Bush EACH AND EVERY TIME she went on five-day trips to luxury resorts in Europe with her friends.
 
Nonsense...Now we are supposed to believe that liberals all of the sudden are never hypocrites when it comes to politics? :roll:


j-mac

Everyone can be; but you used to love the very things you now hate.

There were huge deficits before Obama took office.

Bush signed TARP into law, not Obama. The recession began in December, 2007 - nearly a year before he was elected. But you all blame him for everything.

Obama took 26 vacation days in 2009. Comparatively, Bush took 69. President Obama’s Vacation Days | FactCheck.org

I didn't see people complaining about the money in security and travel it cost for Bush to take 165% the number of vacation days as Obama did.

The difference (and I'm not complaining about the vacation, because it means nothing to me - neither, really, did Bush's vacations - other than I think he took too many) is that I'm ambivalent about Obama. I don't think the stimulus was spent properly, but I believe it should have happened. It should have been spent creating and improving infrastructure which would have created more contracts with private employers and would have created more jobs.

My biggest problem is that everything he's signed has been watered down through the legislative process to the point of being nothing but figurative.

Glenn Beck calls the Wall Street Reform bill the "end of the Republic" - when regulations on Wall Street were much tougher under Reagan than they will be under Obama's bill. I'm just tired of the drama queens who cry about everything - everything they once defended when done by their person.
 
I can't believe Republicans have sunk so low that they criticize Obama's wife for taking a vacation and for having the government pay. If you think this vacation has any affect on this country fiscally you are just plain stupid.


Yes, that is low...I mean my God! This lady just got back from back to back vacations in Martha's vineyard, and the Gulf coast, and in between she had to fly back to the WH to hear a song sung to her by Paul McCartney, and Stevie Wonder, then without rest there were probably some NYC dinner dates with Barry, or some shopping for Arugula in the streets of DC she had to endure....Goodness, how does she do it....Heck, I'd need 40 of my closest friends and rooms with views of the Sea, and Turkish baths to unwind from all that work.....pfft.


j-mac
 
Yes, that is low...I mean my God! This lady just got back from back to back vacations in Martha's vineyard, and the Gulf coast, and in between she had to fly back to the WH to hear a song sung to her by Paul McCartney, and Stevie Wonder, then without rest there were probably some NYC dinner dates with Barry, or some shopping for Arugula in the streets of DC she had to endure....Goodness, how does she do it....Heck, I'd need 40 of my closest friends and rooms with views of the Sea, and Turkish baths to unwind from all that work.....pfft.


j-mac

Again it's sad that you care that a woman goes on vacation.
 
when it comes to Conservatives, Obama can't do anything right and never will do anything right. I think it has something to do with the color of his skin.
 
when it comes to Conservatives, Obama can't do anything right and never will do anything right. I think it has something to do with the color of his skin.

I praised Obama when he said to allow the Iraq war to continue, that is pretty much the only thing i would agree on. Everything else I disagree based on principle, not on race or gender or anything else people could call me on.
 
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