Counterpoint: Provide some evidence that this $200 million/day number has any grounding in reality. Show me how that was calculated. Go google it. I bet you find absolutely nothing.
I had to do it, just because I was curious. The largest part of that huge trip cost has to be the 34 warships that are being deployed there, right? After all, one aircraft carrier costs the Navy approx. $438,356.16 alone in operating costs each day.
Federation of American Scientists :: CVN-68 Nimitz-class
However, these are the five carriers closest to that area of operations currently:
USS Nimitz (CVN 68) - Is currently in the Pacific Ocean conducting operations off the California Coast.
USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) - 5th Fleet GULF OF OMAN (Nov. 1, 2010)
USS George Washington (CVN 73) - East China Sea / Just returned to Yokosuka, Japan
USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) - 5th Fleet Arabian Gulf supporting maritime security operations and theater security cooperation efforts in the U.S. 5th Fleet area of responsibility.
USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76) - Pacific Ocean completing a composite training unit exercise in preparation for an upcoming deployment.
All of that is public information from
The US Navy You can go there any time to find out which ships are deployed and where. Updated daily and from the official navy.mil website
Now, if I recall correctly, the “34 warships” that were accompanying the President were rumored to have at least one aircraft carrier in their task group. The above would seem to dismiss that claim at face value, thereby casting doubt on the whole premise of the inflated costs of the trip.
Let’s see if we can refer to any authoritative sources for further clarification here:
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell called the notion of sending so many warships to protect the president “comical.”
“I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd this notion that somehow we were deploying 10 percent of the Navy -- some 34 ships and an aircraft carrier -- in support of the president's trip to Asia,” Morrell told reporters on Thursday.
I’d say the Pentagon most likely knows where their warships are.
Furthermore…
“Foreign media always exaggerate about presidential trips,” Gordon Johndroe, former deputy White House spokesman under President George W. Bush, said in an e-mail.. “I am positive there will not be ‘34 warships’ involved in this trip.”
It’s hard to put a price tag on presidential trips overseas because several variables are at work, such as how high the threat level is where the president is going, and whether the location in question is expensive, such as Paris, said Johndroe, also a former spokesman for the National Security Council
“I will say I think $200 million a day does sound pretty over the top,” he said. “Yes, it is several million dollars for the president to be somewhere overseas. …. But $200 million is way, way out of line. That figure is in line with – how much does it cost to secure an Olympic site for two weeks or a summit?”
Quotes taken from here
Will 34 warships accompany Obama to India? - The Rumor Doctor - Stripes
I was pretty outraged at first too, reading the headline about the alleged cost of this ridiculous trip, but it didn't take too much effort to ground this back in reality.
