Everyone deserves a vacation once in a while, and that also includes the President of America and, of course, his beloved family.
Having enjoyed a fun-packed and luxurious 16 days partying in Kailua this Christmas, among other places, Barack, Michelle, and the Obama girls, Malia and Sasha, headed for home, having had a whale of a time during their “break,” whilst leaving a massive tab for hard working taxpayers to foot.
As reported by Fox News recently, whilst the Obamas did pay for their own private vacation home rentals, it’s taxpayers who need to foot the multimillion dollar bill for just about everything else, from a stand-by ambulance to the fuel for Air Force One.
And that’s not to mention the hefty bill for the Honolulu Police Department escorts who guarded the President and his first lady 24/7, which includes $277,000 on overtime costs for the 16-day vacation.
While nobody will officially confirm how many Secret Service agents stayed in the Ala Moana Hotel during the vacation, rooms there cost around $200 per night, including taxes.
On top of that, Secret Service agents, Navy SEALs, and Coast Guard officials also had to rent private homes along the canal near the president in Kailua at a cost of roughly $250 per room per night.
But it’s the flights that really ate the cash, as records obtained by Washington, D.C.-based Judicial Watch noted, “the flights to and from Honolulu for the December 2013-January 2014 Christmas vacation totalled 36.9 hours at $210,877 an hour, which comes to a flight expense alone of $7,781,361.30.”
That represents an increase of roughly $3.7 million for flights as compared to the Obama’s 2012 Honolulu Christmas vacation.
There’s also the costs for the USAF C-17 cargo aircraft that transported limos, helicopters and other support equipment to Hawaii, although the amounts spent are never officially disclosed.
However you break it down, the Obama’s Hawaii vacation 2014 cost taxpayers a pretty packet. Let’s just hope the Obamas feel refreshed and that all those millions of dollars spent on them were well worth it.
