NRO tallied up the total for the Obamas' cost of living in the White House: $1.4 billion per year: Air Force One ($181,757 per hour), executive chef ($100,000 per year), three full-time White House calligraphers ($ 277,050 per year for the trio), chief of staff to the president’s dog ($102,000 per year), Ohaha's royal motorcade ($2.2 million).
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The current annual cost of the White House — just in household expenses, not the policy operations for which it exists--administered by 800 policy staff) — is $1.4 billion: Annually, presidential vacations cost $20 million (the low estimate for one vacay Ohaha took to Hawaii while Moochelle was skiing Aspen) $4 million, but the true cost is probably five times that); the first family’s yearly health-care costs are $7 million; more than $6 million is spent on the White House grounds each year. Transporting the president cost $346 million last year.
But as Mrs O whined, "America is basically a downright mean sort of place," so the kid's tours will just have to go. One hopes at least that the calligraphers were recruited to sign the docents’ pink slips.