Obama’s Kenya Flights Cost $6 million, Now Tied for Most Total International Trips

(Alexandria, VA)—Today, President Obama returns from his most recent voyage to Africa, having now spent 161 days abroad during his presidency on 41 international trips. That’s the data from National Taxpayers Union Foundation’s (NTUF’s) new Presidential travel study “Still Up in the Air.”

NTUF found the President has traveled internationally as much as any U.S. President through July of the seventh year in office – equaling former President Clinton with 41 trips. Though, Obama has tended toward shorter stays, falling shy of Clinton’s 178 days spent overseas.

Study author and Policy Analyst Michael Tasselmyer said, “Where in the world is Barack Obama remains the easy question, the difficult question for taxpayers is: What in the world is the cost of the travel?”

Table 1. Presidential Travel Abroad Through July of Seventh Year in Office

Notes:

Sources: State Department data, media reports.

Visits are defined as the number of countries traveled to during a trip (e.g., if the President spends time in 4 countries before returning to the U.S., that is counted as 4 visits).

The most recent estimate on the hourly cost of flying Air Force One from Fiscal Year 2015, verified by NTUF, is $206,337 per flight hour. This figure, obtained by Judicial Watch, represents a slight decline from 2013.

The President’s trip to Africa has taken him to Nairobi, Kenya from Andrews Air Force Base, and on to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia then back to D.C. for a total flight time of 29 hours, at a cost of $5,983,773. 

Visiting this region of Africa requires additional security measures for the President. In this instance security costs are compounded by the presence of 20 Members of Congress who traveled with the President and additional members of the Executive branch.

Table 2. Presidential Obama’s Most Frequently Visited Countries

Notes:

Sources: State Department data, media reports.

Fourteen countries tied with 2 visits: Australia, Belgium, Burma, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Italy, Poland, Russia, South Africa, and Vatican City.

Despite two prominent trips to Africa, President Obama has most frequently traveled to European nations, as well as Mexico, Afghanistan, and South Korea.

Additional notable findings include:

Presidents continue to travel more in their second terms (during the jet travel era), even President Eisenhower spent 54 more days abroad during his second term than during his first, Obama continues this trend.

Vacation trips are considered official travel and thus funded by taxpayers.

In FY 2015 the Office of Management and Budget reported that the Secret Service was appropriated an estimated $852 million for “protection of persons and facilities” and $31 million for “international field operations, administration and operations.”

The Air Force will be moving ahead with replacing the current fleet of VC-25 aircraft (Air Force Ones), which could cost upwards of $1.7 billion over five years

Tasselymyer concluded, “While flight costs can be estimated, the rest of the expenses associated with travel, including security, lodging, food, and more, not just for the President and Air Force One, but additional staff and airplanes, remains opaque.”

Via: Canada Free Press

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The Collapse of the Obama Presidency

How bad has 2013 been for Barack Obama? Let us count the ways.

In the first year of his second term, the president has failed on virtually every front. He put his prestige on the line to pass federal gun-control legislation–and lost. He made climate change a central part of his inaugural address–and nothing has happened. The president went head-to-head with Republicans on sequestration–and he failed. He’s been forced to delay implementation of the employer mandate, a key feature of the Affordable Care Act. ObamaCare is more unpopular than ever, and it’s turning out to be a “train wreck” (to quote Democratic Senator Max Baucus) in practice. The most recent jobs report was the worst in a year, with the Obama recovery already qualifying as a historically weak one. Immigration reform is going nowhere. And then there’s Syria, which has turned out to be an epic disaster. (To be sure, Mr. Obama’s Middle East failures go well beyond Syria–but Syria is the most conspicuous failure right now).

In watching the Obama presidency dissolve before our eyes, there is a cautionary tale to be told. Every presidency falls short of the expectations that the candidate sets. But no man has ever promised more and delivered less than the current occupant of the Oval Office.

All of the extravagant promises and claims–of “Yes We Can!” and “we’re the ones we’ve been waiting for;” of hope and change and slowing the rise of the oceans; of claiming his candidacy would “ring out across this land as a hymn that will heal this nation, repair this world, make this time different than all the rest”–lie in ruin. (I’d urge you to watch this short video clip from the 2008 campaign  to more fully appreciate the crushing disappointment that results from what Mr. Obama said he would achieve versus what he’s been able to achieve.)

Via: Commentary Magazine

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Obama Reduces 2014 Pay Hike for U.S. Troops, Still Fighting in Afghanistan

(CNSNews.com) - As promised in his Fiscal Year 2014 budget, President Obama has just informed Congress that he will cap next year's pay raise for U.S. military personnel at 1 percent, instead of the 1.8 percent raise set by the formula Congress established.

The announcement came on Friday afternoon, at the start of the long Labor Day weekend, in a letter to Congress.

"I am strongly committed to supporting our uniformed service members, who have made such great contributions to our Nation over the past decade of war," President Obama wrote to congressional leaders. "As our country continues to recover from serious economic conditions affecting the general welfare, however, we must maintain efforts to keep our Nation on a sustainable fiscal course. This effort requires tough choices, especially in light of budget constraints faced by Federal agencies."

Obama said he has decided to "exercise my authority under section 1009(e) of title 37, United States Code, to set the 2014 monthly basic pay increase at 1.0 percent" for members of the military.

"This decision is consistent with my fiscal year 2014 Budget and will not materially affect the Federal Government's ability to attract and retain well-qualified members for the uniformed services," Obama wrote. 

Via: CNS News

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Obamacare: When You Have to Find a New Doctor

Remember when President Obama said if you like your doctor, you could keep him or her? Americans everywhere are finding out that’s not true.

“I have to find a new doctor,” Dallas mom Stacy Wilson tells Heritage. “I’ve been seeing the same primary care physician the last 15 years and I just got a letter [in the] last month or so saying that she’s moving to a VIP program where you pay in several thousand dollars and you get more time with the doctor, more personalized care, and because of that, well first of all I can’t afford that, and second of all, she’s shrinking her practice down to like 400 patients.”

Wilson’s doctor, an internist, is one of many doctors switching to what is known as “concierge medicine.” A survey of doctors in 2012 found that one in 10 plans to convert their practice to concierge, also known as direct-pay because it eliminates third-party insurance. Many say they are responding to increasing bureaucratic interference and uncertainty over insurance and Medicare payments, and some directly cite Obamacare. This is one way for doctors to guarantee a level of patient care, which they fear is being compromised by indiscriminate regulations.

“I don’t fault my doctor. She’s a small business owner, and she has to do what she has to do for her small business and herself before her patients,” Wilson adds. “If they’re going to put all these regulations on the doctors, she needs to do what she needs to do. If that means shrinking her practice and doing a VIP program, then that’s what she has to do.”

Wilson said it’s simple: “[Obama] lied. It’s one thing to come up with an idea and think it’s so great, and it’s another thing to actually know how the system works and what the details would be. And you can’t make promises like that until you know what’s going to happen, and they don’t even know what’s going to happen now.”

Via: The Foundry

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Obama Calls for Economic Equality in America Changed by King

ANOTHER WAY OF SAYING "REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH"

President Obama, speaking from the same Washington stage where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a defining speech of the civil rights movement, said that even as the nation has been transformed, work remains in countering growing economic disparities.

“To secure the gains this country has made requires constant vigilance, not complacency,” said Obama, appearing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where 50 years ago today King called on Americans to make good on the country’s founding promise of equality for all.

Speaking shortly after bells rang across the U.S. in commemoration of the start of King’s 1963 speech, Obama’s remarks served as the culmination of a week-long remembrance of a peaceful “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” that helped galvanize the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

King, Obama said, had done more than advance the cause of civil rights for black Americans -- he changed America.

“Because they kept marching, America changed,” Obama said of those who marched on Washington 50 years ago. “‘What King was describing was the dream of every American,’’ he said, ‘‘the chance through honest toil to advance one’s station in life.’’

Obama, 52, the nation’s first black president, has worked throughout his campaigns and government service to transcend issues of race. Yet this address centered on a problem still confronting a nation riven with economic disparities.

Via: Newsmax

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It’s personal: Obamas carried $120,000 student loan debt for decades

For President Obama, the student loan crisis is personal.

The Obamas had not repaid all of their $120,000 student loan debts until his election to the Senate in 2004.

In a series of speeches last week, Obama pushed for measures that he hopes would force colleges to control costs for massively indebted students. He also expressed the view that law school should only last two years, rather than three.

These views are likely informed by Obama’s own college debts, which were recently quantified by The Chicago Sun-Times.

Though Obama received a scholarship to attend Occidental College, the money ran out after his freshman year. He paid the rest of his undergraduate tuition through loans and assistance from his family.

Michelle Obama took out loans to pay for college at Princeton University and Harvard University as well. The Obamas carried these debts for the first 25 years of their marriage.

The president and the first lady also racked up $40,000 each attending Harvard Law School. Including undergraduate loans, the Obamas owed a combined $120,000 after college.

They did not settle their debts until 2004, when Obama signed a $1.9 million book deal to write “The Audacity of Hope.” He was also elected to the U.S. Senate that year.

Via: Daily Caller

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Obama touts states providing quality higher ed, all led by Republican governors

President Barack Obama rolled out a new plan to address the rising cost of higher education and student loan debt on Thursday, touting the successes of several states all led by Republican governors.

While speaking at the University of Buffalo — the first stop on his bus tour through New York and Pennsylvania — President Obama praised the efforts of GOP-led states for the work they are doing to help students. During his speech, Obama referenced Tennessee, Ohio and Indiana for implementing policies that allocate more funding to colleges better preparing students for their post-graduate career.

In Ohio, Republican Gov. John Kasich’s budget for 2014-2015 bases even more state funding for colleges on how many students they graduate, not how many they enroll, increasing that section of a school’s state funding from the current 20 percent to 50 percent.

Obama also highlighted Michigan, which rewards schools that keep tuition costs down. That program was designed by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, and as a result, all Michigan public colleges kept their tuition increases under 4 percent for the 2012-2013 school year.

And the President wants these Republican-driven programs to spread to other states as well.

“I’m challenging all states to come up with new and innovative ways to fund their colleges in a way that drives better results,” he said on Thursday.

He then went on to tout programs at Southern New Hampshire University, University of Wisconsin, Central Missouri University, Carnegie Mellon, Arizona State and Georgia Tech for experimenting with new ways to keep tuition low for students.

“A lot of other schools are experimenting with these ideas to keep tuition down. They’ve got other ways to help students graduate in less time, at less costs, while still maintaining high quality,” Obama said. “The point is it’s possible.”

Of the 10 states Obama mentioned, either directly or by referencing a school in the state, eight are led by Republican governors with the exception of Missouri and New Hampshire, where Central Missouri University and Southern New Hampshire University are located, respectively.

Via: Red State

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Are You Getting Fooled by Obama? Check Out These 5 Pictures and Find Out

Organizing for Action, President Obama’s campaign group, is good at what it does. Its activists know how to get people fired up about President Obama, and they know they’ve been able to fool a lot of Americans.

They also know the 2,700-page Affordable Care Act is an overwhelming piece of legislation filled with bureaucracy, complexity, and regulation—bad news for everyone.

So it’s no surprise they aggressively posted “facts” about Obamacare on all of their social media outlets last week to try to hide the truth about Obamacare.

We refuse to let Organizing for Action fool us on Obamacare. Join us. Get the actual facts below and share the truth with your friends:

1. 

Via: The Foundry

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