Obama Takes Air Force One Jet And Marine One Helicopter To Play Round Of Golf Less Than 48 Hours Before Today’s Big Climate Speech…

Via: Weasel Zippers

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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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[VIDEO] DROUGHT? CLIMATE CHANGE? OBAMA JETS TO PALM SPRINGS FOR GOLF

On Thursday, President Barack Obama pledged: “I am committed to taking bold actions at home and abroad to cut carbon pollution.” On Friday, the President told a gathering of the nation’s mayors in San Francisco that they had to prepare for climate change. On Saturday, he flew on Air Force One to Palm Springs, where on Sunday he is playing golf at Sunnylands.

The president’s golf trip comes as Californians struggle with an extreme drought that has prompted Gov. Jerry Brown to issue the state’s first-ever mandatory water cuts. The Coachella Valley’s “water guzzling” golf courses have faced particular criticism, though they rely on their own large aquifer, and many have implemented water-saving reforms in recent years.

The White House wants Americans to know the president cares about the drought: “White House spokesman Eric Schultz responds that many courses have taken water mitigation steps aimed at conservation,” the Associated Press reports. “Schultz says Obama discussed the drought with California Gov. Jerry Brown in a meeting in San Francisco Friday.”

Still, at the end of his Father’s Day retreat, the president will climb aboard his taxpayer-funded aircraft and burn another trail of “carbon pollution.” If Obama truly believes that “we have a profound responsibility to protect our children, and our children’s children, from the damaging impacts of climate change,”  he has a rather roundabout way of showing it.

Via: Breitbart

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Obama Whines About Global Warming On Twitter While Flying On Air Force One To Attend DNC Fundraisers In Miami…

Obama departs aboard carbon-spewing Air Force One:

While en route “Barack Obama” warns about dangers climate change:

Via: Weasel Zippers

Under Obama, Air Force One cost per hour jumps 27% to $228,288

The president spent over $7.3 million on just three trips in 2013, including $2.1 million to appear on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” in August, according to new flight documents provided by the Air Force to a public watchdog group.

Judicial Watch told Secrets that the sky-high jet travel costs for the first family's 2012-2013 Christmas vacation in Hawaii, their beach vacation on Martha's Vineyard last summer and President Obama's brief trip to California in August totalled $7,396,531.20.

The Air Force said it costs $228,288 an hour to fly Air Force One, a massive $48,535 jump from the last estimate of $179,750, or 27 percent.

The details according to documents requested under the Freedom of Information Act:

— The outbound flight to Honolulu for the Obama 2012-2013 Christmas vacation cost taxpayers $2,214,393.60. The return flight to Washington was $1,871,961.60. The total price for flight expenditures alone came to $4,086,355.20.

— The outbound flight to California in August 2013 for Obama to dine with fundraiser and DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg and appear on the “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” cost taxpayers $1,209,926.40. The return flight to Washington was $935,980.80. The total price for flight expenditures alone came to $2,145,907.20.

— The outbound flight to Martha’s Vineyard for the Obama family August vacation cost taxpayers $890,323.20. The return flight to Washington was $273,945.60. The total price for flight expenditures alone came to $1,164,268.80.

Getting the documents was a score for Judicial Watch, which has also sought and received Obama administration vacation spending documents from the U.S. Secret Service. Typically, flight costs are not provided. It was also the first authoritative hourly cost provided for operating Air Force One.

“The Obamas are abusing the public trust and the taxpayers with unnecessary luxurious vacations and travel,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “These staggering costs show why these documents were covered up and we had to sue in federal court to get them. Another transparency fail for the Obama gang.”

Via: Washington Examiner

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Obama: Some Folks Don't Like Me Because I'm Black

On the Sunday afternoon before Thanksgiving, Barack Obama sat in the office cabin of Air Force One wearing a look of heavy-lidded annoyance. The Affordable Care Act, his signature domestic achievement and, for all its limitations, the most ambitious social legislation since the Great Society, half a century ago, was in jeopardy. His approval rating was down to forty per cent—lower than George W. Bush’s in December of 2005, when Bush admitted that the decision to invade Iraq had been based on intelligence that “turned out to be wrong.” Also, Obama said thickly, “I’ve got a fat lip.”

That morning, while playing basketball at F.B.I. headquarters, Obama went up for a rebound and came down empty-handed; he got, instead, the sort of humbling reserved for middle-aged men who stubbornly refuse the transition to the elliptical machine and Gentle Healing Yoga. This had happened before. In 2010, after taking a self-described “shellacking” in the midterm elections, Obama caught an elbow in the mouth while playing ball at Fort McNair. He wound up with a dozen stitches. The culprit then was one Reynaldo Decerega, a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute. Decerega wasn’t invited to play again, though Obama sent him a photograph inscribed “For Rey, the only guy that ever hit the President and didn’t get arrested. Barack.”

This time, the injury was slighter and no assailant was named—“I think it was the ball,” Obama said—but the President needed little assistance in divining the metaphor in this latest insult to his person. The pundits were declaring 2013 the worst year of his Presidency. The Republicans had been sniping at Obamacare since its passage, nearly four years earlier, and HealthCare.gov, a Web site that was undertested and overmatched, was a gift to them. There were other beribboned boxes under the tree: Edward Snowden’s revelations about the National Security Agency; the failure to get anything passed on gun control or immigration reform; the unseemly waffling over whether the Egyptian coup was a coup; the solidifying wisdom in Washington that the President was “disengaged,” allergic to the forensic and seductive arts of political persuasion. The congressional Republicans quashed nearly all legislation as a matter of principle and shut down the government for sixteen days, before relenting out of sheer tactical confusion and embarrassment—and yet it was the President’s miseries that dominated the year-end summations.

Via: New Yorker

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Obama spars with Louisiana governor over healthcare law

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - A trip by President Barack Obama to the Port of New Orleans on Friday was an opportunity for him to focus on the economy and divert attention from the troubled launch of his signature healthcare insurance program.

Instead, the visit turned into a spat over Obamacare with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, a possible Republican presidential contender.

Jindal met Air Force One when it landed and attended Obama's speech to a crowd of about 650 people on a wharf on the Mississippi River.

Obama first delivered a pitch for the creation of jobs by fixing roads, dredging ports and modernizing the U.S. air traffic control system.

Then he took a veiled jab at Jindal for failing to support a key plank of the healthcare law.

Louisiana is one of 24 states that has refused federal funds to expand Medicaid to more low-income people, money that Obama said would help 265,000 people in the state gain access to health insurance.

"Even if you don't support the overall plan, let's at least go ahead and make sure that the folks who don't have health insurance right now and can get it through an expanded Medicaid, let's make sure we do that," Obama said.

That opened the door for Jindal to accuse Obama of trying to "bully" the state.

Via: Yahoo

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Obama’s Speeches Already Costing Over $1.3 Million

BUT  NO MONEY AVAILABLE TO RE-OPEN WHITE HOUSE TOURS!

President Obama’s speeches are already costing taxpayers well over $1 million – and probably closer to $2 million – as the president jets around the country campaign-style to drum up support for his agenda.

The tally includes a two-stop trip Wednesday that took Obama to Galesburg, Illinois and Warrensburg, Missouri; an excursion Thursday to Jacksonsville, Florida; and a fourth speech planned for Tuesday in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Further trips are on tap but haven’t been announced.

The bill for Air Force One, which is known to cost about $180,000 per hour to fly, totals close $1.3 million alone based on the travel time already incurred and the estimated travel time Tuesday.

Additional costs include tens of thousands of dollars for a cargo plane that accompanies the president everywhere he flies, spending on the chopper that takes him from the White House to Andrews Air Force Base where he hops aboard Air Force One, staff, motorcades, and logistics on the ground in the places he visits.

The White House says it’s worth it. “Traveling across the country and laying out his vision for how best to accomplish those priorities is an important part of his job,” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest Thursday.

Nevertheless, it’s also an expensive part, particularly during a moment when government services are being cut due to the sequester and a budget battle looms for Obama with Republicans in Congress.

Via: White House Dossier

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No White House Press Briefing in Last 15 Days

The White House has not held a press briefing in the last 15 days, according to records on the White House's website. The last one was held on September 24, 2012, by White House press secretary Jay Carney.

However, in that 15 day time period, and including today, there have been 11 press gaggles. Nine have been conducted by Carney, while 2 have been held by principal deputy press secretary Josh Earnest. Campaign surrogates David Axelrod and traveling press secretary Jen Psaki have participated in the gaggles.

But there's a big difference between a gaggle and a press briefing. Gaggles are limited only to those members of the press who are traveling with the president of the United States and are not video taped. Press briefings, on the other hand, are open to credentialed media (who obtain White House approval) and are on camera. 

Gaggles tend to by shorter in length than a normal press briefing, usually being held for approximately 10-15 minutes at a time. And are these days very often held aboard Air Force One to accommodate the frequent campaign stops across the country by President Obama.

Via: Weekly Standard

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SPOKESWOMAN: OBAMA TOO BUSY FOR DEBATE PREP

Today, aboard Air Force One, traveling press secretary for the Obama campaign Jen Psaki doubled down on the Obama team strategy of playing down expectations for next week’s debate with Mitt Romney. She explained to the press:

The President will have some time to prepare, and he’s been doing some studying.  But it is certainly less than we anticipated because of the events in the Middle East, because of his busy travel schedule, because of just the constraints of governing.  So it is less than we originally planned.

I will just take this opportunity to say that Mitt Romney on the other hand has been preparing earlier and with more focus than any presidential candidate in modern history -- not John F. Kennedy, not President Bill Clinton, not President George Bush, not Ronald Reagan has prepared as much as he has.  So there’s no question that he will have a lead on how prepared he is.

Wait just a second. President Obama is saying he’s been doing less debate prep than he normally would have because of events in the Middle East? Because of the constraints of governing?

Really?

Which events would those be? Events like the murder of our Libyan ambassador, which prompted busy busy Obama to deliver a slapdash address, then blow off all strategizing for a fundraiser in Vegas? Events like the takeover of our embassy in Tunisia by al Qaeda, which precipitated an appearance on David Letterman?

What kind of governing has precluded Obama from debate prep? Governing, like the wonderful job he’s done on that Libyan investigation, which he’s largely blown off to hang with Jay-Z and Beyonce? Governing, like shunning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but finding time to be self-proclaimed “eye candy” on The View? Governing, like presiding over a massive economic inflation just before an election, but finding time to comment on the crucial issue of football referees?

Via: Breitbart

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Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on Obama family last year, perks questioned in new book

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks.

In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family.

Author Robert Keith Gray writes in “Presidential Perks Gone Royal” that Obama isn’t the only president to have taken advantage of the expensive trappings of his office. But the amount of money spent on the first family, he argues, has risen tremendously under the Obama administration and needs to be reined in.

Gray told The Daily Caller that the $1.4 billion spent on the Obama family last year is the “total cost of the presidency,” factoring the cost of the “biggest staff in history at the highest wages ever,” a 50 percent increase in the numbers of appointed czars and an Air Force One “running with the frequency of a scheduled air line.”

“The most concerning thing, I think, is the use of taxpayer funds to actually abet his re-election,” Gray, who worked in the Eisenhower administration and for other Republican presidents, said in an interview with TheDC on Wednesday.

“The press has been so slow in picking up on this extraordinary increase in the president’s expenses,” Gray told TheDC.

Specifically, Gray said taxpayer dollars are subsidizing Obama’s re-election effort when he uses Air Force One to jet across the country campaigning.

Via: Daily Caller

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Carney gets reporters talking football, not politics, during press gaggle

The traveling press corps managed to ask only seven non-football questions, according to the 1,985-word transcript provided by the White House. The gaggle’s first quarter was devoted to the president’s assessment of a disputed call during a Sept. 24 football game between the Green Bay Backers and the Seattle Seahawks.

“I have no announcements, but I do have to say that there is a pressing matter that kind of transcends all else for most Americans,” Carney said as he began the gaggle on Air Force One as it flew back from New York toward Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

Carney’s casual introduction prompted laughs from the attending reporters, two weeks after Carney began claiming that a little-known YouTube video prompted a lethal jihad attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya.

“Come on. You’re not even waiting for the question, Carney,” a reporter joked with Carney.

“This morning I watched it, and it was really astounding,” continued Carney.

“And by ‘it,’ I mean the end of the Packers-Seahawks game,” he announced, 13 days after Cabinet Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was found in violation of the Hatch Act.

Via: The Daily Caller

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