Posted on 08/12/2011 11:45:55 AM PDT by COUNTrecount
First Lady Michelle Obama over the last year has spent a total of 42 days on vacation, or a little more than one out of every nine days, according to a White House Dossier analysis of her travel.
Her vacations, the cost of which are mostly borne by taxpayers, include trips to Panama City, Fla., Marthas Vineyard, Hawaii, South Africa, Latin America, Vail, Colo., and her visit this week to her brother in Corvallis, Ore.
The total does not include a nine day sojourn in Marthas Vineyard that the Obamas will enjoy this month. Nor does it include a trip she made to Ireland and Great Britain in May, which Im counting as official travel.
The total vacation time would have been slightly higher had the Obamas gone as planned for an April weekend in Williamsburg, Va. The trip was cancelled due to an extended stalemate between President Obama and Congress over the budget.
Mrs. Obamas extensive vacation travel comes while many America citizens find themselves out of work or having trouble making ends meet as the economic recovery stalls.
Taxpayers pick up most of the cost of transporting the first lady and her extensive entourage including Secret Service and her staff to her various destinations. While she may in some cases pay some of the tab for her personal expenses and travel, the amount is dwarfed by the overall cost to the public.
On trips she makes with the president, though, the costs are only somewhat greater that then they would have been had he travelled alone.
Mrs. Obamas vacations began in August 2010 with a two day weekend trip to Panama City, Fla., where the Obamas stayed overnight at a Gulf of Mexico hotel in a symbolic effort to show that the Gulf area was safe for travel in the wake of the disastrous BP oil spill.
Next up was what has become an annual pilgrimage to ritzy Marthas Vineyard, where the Obamas stayed 10 days and dined at several exorbitantly priced restaurants.
In December 2010, with President Obama delayed because Congress was still in town, Mrs. Obama decided to leave without him for their annual Hawaiian vacation, racking up at least $63,000 in additional costs because she travelled alone.
Since the president arrived late, he decided to leave Hawaii in January two days later than scheduled resulting in a 17 day vacation for the first lady.
Mrs. Obama went right back out on vacation the following month, taking a four day skiing trip in February of this year to Vail, Colo.
In March, Mrs. Obama travelled to Latin America for a five day trip. Im counting two days of this as vacation, though, because she took her children and her mother along, performed some sightseeing, and went to the beach.
The first lady went to southern Africa in June for six days in what was partially an official visit. Since Mrs. Obama took her mother, her children and their cousins along, since the trip was billed in advance as having personal significance for her, and since the travel included several tourist destinations and a safari, Im counting half of the journey as vacation, or three days.
Finally, Mrs, Obama took her mother and one of her children to visit her brother in Corvallis, Ore. this week. The trip was not announced by the White House and appears to have lasted four days.
Barry.
As far as I know, she doesn't get paid either.
As far as I know, she doesn't get paid either.
She has no job and a large staff.
Her entire life is a vacation.
She has yet to entertain any first laides of the world.....No one wants to be around her.
In addition to free trips the taxpayer probably provides her with fresh bamboo shoots.
She be needing a vacay from all the hate doncha know.
Those kids ain’t never going to get her up from the ground! They will need hep from a couple of NFL linemen! Or a fork lift!
Why doesn’t the fat and lazy government welfare “B” become a real example and get a legitimate job!
She really spent 365 days on vacation. She has no real job.
And how much did this cost the taxpayers? That would be a nice 30-second psa type ad on tha tee vee. Unfortunately, the GOP does not have the nads to produce such a clip.
It was more.... Her so called official duty trips involved lots of “while we’re here” side trips....
LOL, well from Barack, of course. I mean, how easy is it to live with a narcissist...especially one who is so disconnected from any real emotions, whose life is a fraud, and who is such a loser? Any normal person can see through the fake "loving relationship" between these two - one an emotionally devoid, pathological liar, and the other a demanding, angry, self-serving hypocrite (hmmm, which is which???).
I have always believed, that from the beginning there was a pact between Michelle, and Barack and his handlers, for her to behave as though they have a perfect, loving, good marriage. In exchange, Michelle was allowed to live high on the hog via the taxpayers, and enjoy whatever goodies she could grab during BO's tenure. It was the way they keep her quiet and under control, you can be sure. And, naturally, the liberal media bought into this tale about "the loving couple" and perpetuates it. If only the WH staff could speak out, I am sure there are stories about the real Barack and Michelle behavior within the WH walls that would curl our hair.
It is obvious that Michelle is nothing but a glutton for all things good for Michelle...from food, to trips, to shopping. After all, she feels "entitled." She suffered so much - getting that government paid college education and cushy, made up hospital administration job before bouncing into the White House. Now she squanders taxpayer's money and flaunts her lifestyle in the faces of Americans while playing at the role of being a concerned First Lady who advocates eating vegetables. Of course, she is no "lady," nor is she concerned about anyone or anything else beyond fulfilling her belief that all that comes to her is a "payback."
Why do you need to officially get paid if everywhere you want to go, everything you want to wear, every party and date nite you want to do, every exotic place you want to see and take your whole damned friend clique with you is paid for by us? No, no official pay, just the unearned Nobel money from hubby, the high priced Chicago home they got from a contractor for next to nothing, royalties from books not even written by Barry, and whatever the hell else he and she are stealing while they occupy our White House.
Would be interesting to see the REAL total this ugly shelf ass antiAmerican wookie costs us with these vacations???
But hey, wouldn’t you do anything you could to get the hell away from the one too?
She has a tough job - living with his o’nothingness.
You won't even miss the 25 or 50 cents you put in a FR Change Jar, but at the end of the month you will have at least $5 to donate so FR can operate smoothly, or you will moan and grown and go into withdrawal when it is down, because of broken parts, or over loaded servers during crisis events. And every day 0 remains in office is a crisis.
To donate click here
Good as long as that Ugly Wretch is away she, can cause NO problems in our Diet.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.