Posted on 12/20/2016 8:58:59 AM PST by Dave346
Secret Service Lodging Cost Over $1 Million Alone
(Washington DC)—Judicial Watch announced today that it obtained records from the U.S. Secret Service revealing that its travel expenses for the First Family’s 2015 Hawaiian vacation cost taxpayers $1.2 million, which brings the total cost of the vacation trip to at least $4.8 million. This was the Obamas’ eighth Hawaiian family vacation. The trip has become an annual event for the Obamas. To date, Obama’s and his family’s travel expenses total at least $85,029,819.
The records obtained by Judicial Watch for Obama’s Secret Service travel to Hawaii reveal the following expenses totaling $1,234,316.67:
Hotel and lodging costs totaled $1,000,458.63 The Secret Service spent $165,893.88 on car rentals. Air and rail expenses totaled $67,964.16.
Although the vacation officially lasted from December 18, 2015, to January 3, 2016, the Secret Service rented several Kailua homes for 19 nights, starting from December 16. The total for the rentals, located near the Marine Corps base at Kaneohe Bay was $245,993.12. According to bills obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the Secret Service also paid for rooms at the Hawaii Prince Hotel Waikiki and Golf Club. The Secret Service also reserved rooms at the Moana Surfrider resort on Waikiki Beach, and the Ala Moana Hotel, which cost a total of $40,249.48 and $671,895.99, respectively.
The Secret Service rented cars from Avis, Alamo, and Hertz – 103 cars for the two-week vacation, totaling $165,893.88 in taxpayer money.
Reportedly, the Obamas stayed at the Hale Reena Estate, which “rents for anywhere between $5,000 to $10,000 a night, depending on the season.”
According to other news sources, the Obamas dined out frequently (and were guarded) at Hawaii’s finest restaurants:
On Sunday, December 20, the Obamas had dinner at Morimoto, a celebrity chef-owned Asian-fusion restaurant, On Christmas Eve, they dined at MW Restaurant in Honolulu, On December 27, the first family took their dinner at “one of Hawaii’s finest restaurants,” Hoku’s at the Kahala Hotel and Resort, The next day, the Obamas dined at Alan Wong’s with friends, And on New Year’s Day, the Obamas dined at Halekulani, billed as one of the “top restaurants on Oahu.”
The president played seven rounds of golf, went hiking and snorkeling.
Judicial Watch filed a FOIA request for these documents in January 2016. The records were released in response to a FOIA lawsuit filed on May 6, 2016, (Judicial Watch v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (No. 1:16-cv-00863)). The lawsuit was filed after the Secret Service ignored a series of separate FOIA requests for costs associated with the president’s travel.
“The Secret Service and the Air Force are being abused by unnecessary travel,” said Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton. “Unnecessary presidential travel for fundraising and luxury vacations on the taxpayers’ dime would be a good target for reform for the incoming Trump administration.”
Dear leader and family have spent $1.5 BILLION dollars of taxpayer’s money every single year (and it’s likely even higher now- this was from a report years ago)- when he leaves- over $12 BILLION dollars will have been spent on him and his family as they jet setted around the country partying like there’s no end in sight
Wonder how much it cost the taxpayers to support the live in mother-in-law for the past eight years? No Republican president could get away with something like this.
Once you crank up AF-1 and all its ancillary components of limos, staff, communications gear, doctors, etc... you are always going to be talking $ millions for any trip, anywhere.
The cost and complexity of anything the US Government bureaucracy always tends towards exponential increase.
The USA is not an empire (yet anyway) and the US President is not an emperor. Get rid of AF-1
Its going to end soon and i’m pretty sure PEOTUS Trump will start up a new law about abusing presidential priviledges and resources.
Every penny spent to keep him on the golf course or vacation has been well worth it. Unfortunately he has often been allowed to spout off to the media or do “work” while on vacation. I’d spend $100 million for vacation over the next 5 weeks if he promises to stay out of the way.
Think about that while you’re job hunting. :)
Squandering money is what democrats have mastered for years.
That’s a good point. Just how much did it cost us to keep ole ma-in-law in high cotton for the last eight years? What happens to ma-in-law a month from today? She’s going to have to find new accommodations. Somehow, I feel that we’ll be footing the bill for her and her crummy family members
$84 M isn’t correct if you go back to the beginning of his presidency and start adding up the numbers spent on him, his wife, his children, and other family members. It would take a while to add it all up but $84M doesn’t seem even close.
it’s not close- there was a fox report years ago showing they spent $1.5 BILLION dollars on themselves for one year- (I’m assuming that entails everything, flights, security, transportation etc- but still- my goodness- $1.5 BILLION is insane)
Just how much did it cost us to keep ole ma-in-law in high cotton for the last eight years?
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Free room, probably free food, free heat and A/C, no home upkeep or maintenance expenses, no home insurance payments, on-site chef to prepare meals, and government provided transportation services. The high cotton cost taxpayers plenty. Probably somewhere in the hundreds of thousands of dollars considering its been eight years of luxury living.
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