I don’t care how often Michelle Obama goes on vacation, what does bother me is the hypocrisy.
When it was revealed a couple of weeks ago that Governor Palin spent $14,000 to decorate her bus. The liberal media went beserk over it. Headlines included “While Americans Go Hungry, Sarah Palin Spends $14,000 on Stickers for Bus” “Sarah Palin Spent $14,000 Of Other People’s Money On Stickers” and “Sarah Palin Paid Almost $14,000 to Decorate Her Tour Bus and More From SarahPAC’s FEC Report“. Those are just three out of the over 91,000 search results for the term palin spends 14000 on bus.
Governor Palin did not spend tax payers money, she spent money people freely donated to her PAC. No one was forced to donate, and those who donated did so with the understanding that she will use the money as she sees fit to promote and advance her agenda. In fact, at the start of her Bus Tour she raised funds particularly for this purpose. People who donated did so knowing she’ll use the money for the tour.
Not so Michelle Obama.
Mrs Obama spends millions of dollars of tax payer money for her supposedly “mother and daughter” trips. Money people work hard for from people who struggle to make ens meet. Yet nowhere have I seen a headline: “While Americans Go Hungry, Michelle Obama Spends $10 million on family time” or “Michelle Obama Spent $375,000 Of Other People’s Money On Ice Cream”
How long before the media blames Palin?
The American Thinker reports:
Michelle Obama must think most people are easily duped. To quell the disapproval of Americans who struggle to come up with theextra money to fill their gas tanks, Michelle has to spend lots of time — between booking vacations and deciding how big a wardrobe chest to load into the cargo plane — coming up with justifications to subdue the public’s disapproval of her obvious addiction to pricey vacations.
Last year, prior to heading off to Martha’s Vineyard, Michelle took Sasha on an exotic summer visit to Spain. The I-dare-you-to-say-something excuse for that excursion was that it was a “private mother-daughter trip with longtime family friends,” which in itself is a contradiction in terms.
A “private mother-daughter” trip with 40 “close” friends and a taxpayer-funded security detail of 68 is hardly an intimate family outing. The entourage was so large that the group required 30 rooms in “Spain’s most exclusive hotel the Villa Padierna, a golf and spa resort located along the coast from Marbella.”
Sorry, but throwing around mother-daughter language, as if Sasha and Shelley were going to Spain to spend one-on-one “Mommy and Me” time, was nothing more than a manipulative shield used to suppress well-deserved criticism for a four-day trip rumored to cost $375,000.
Every Christmas the Obamas kick back for a low-key holiday in Hawaii on a “family” break that runs about $1.5 million for transport planes; exorbitant rent on a mansion called the “Winter White House”; and lodging for security, staff, and medical backup. Before anyone dares criticize, it’s important to remember that the break is a longtime family tradition where two darling little girls get to make an annual visit to walk the hallowed ground that is their father’s putative birthplace.
[…]
Take for instance how, after Obama encouraged America to save money by skipping vacation, less than 50 days after returning home from Oahu Michelle commissioned AF1 to ferry her as chaperone to a 2010 giggling-girls ski trip in Vail, Colorado. Besides not heeding her husband’s austerity advice, the first lady of healthy eating dined on ancho-chili short ribs at “141 grams of fat per serving.” Then, after dessert, she chose to camp out like a girl scout in the “upscale Sebastian Hotel on Vail Mountain, where rooms start at $650 a night and range up to more than $2,400 for multi-bedroom suites.”
Lest we forget, Michelle and her daughters spent time tasting and touring their way through New York City, sightseeing in Los Angeles, barbequing and memorializing on Memorial Day in Chicago, hiking in Maine, bobbing for tar balls on the Florida Gulf Coast, and recovering from a whirlwind of activity on an annual vacation in Chilmark.
Ever family-minded, Michelle also accompanied her husband to Indonesia, South America, Ireland, the UK, and Paris, trips that incorporated retail therapy, seeing the sights, fine dining, and recreating in between official duties that included breaking English protocol and forcing conservative Muslim men to shake her hand.
This year, just prior to heading to Martha’s Vineyard, Mrs. Obama managed to squeeze in a pre-vacation/official business/vacation to South Africa, accompanied as usual by an entourage of tagalong family and friends. If cost estimates for travel and security are correct, the jaunt cost American taxpayers anywhere from $500,000 to a reported $800,000.
Check out this video by American Majority:
H/T Politicons
In the past year alone, First Lady Michelle Obama has spent 42 days on vacation, costing taxpayers upwards of $10 million.
$10 million. In taxpayer funds. For vacations.
Taking full advantage of Air Force Two (costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars), Michelle has criss-crossed the world to destinations from Spain to Hawaii and Vail, CO to Martha’s Vineyard. Indulging in lavish hotels, top-shelf alcohol, and Secret Service-arranged sight-seeing tours, Michelle has not been shy about putting her any and every whim on America’s tab.
When was the last time you took a six-figure vacation? Probably never, if you’re one of the millions of hard-working Americans worried about keeping food on the table, a roof over your head, and clothes on your children.
Can we really afford to keep up with our First Lady’s reckless spending in addition to our president’s?
It’s the hypocrisy stupid!
The Democrat Party: membership has its privileges.
Is anyone really surprised there’s been no grand expose on the mainstream networks about FLOTUS’s spending habits? The LSM lies about everything – Trig Palin’s maternity; book banning; the $500,000 wardrobe the RNC bought for Sarah in the 2008 election; Troopergate; Jared Loughner, I could go on here. The LSM also lies by NOT reporting things like FLOTUS’s swanky vacations. Still ashamed of your country, Michelle?
The fact is that the LSM lies because IT THINKS IT CAN GET AWAY WITH IT. Mainstream media outlets in television and print take the chance that most people won’t bother to fact-check what reporters say in their broadcasts. Sad to say, but the bias against Republicans will probably never go away, yet the best our side can do is fight the smears. Eventually, many (but not all) people will see that they’ve been lied to all along and turn against the LSM forever. That’s exactly what happened to me.
Anyone who is willing to do a little fact-checking can find that the First Lady did NOT use taxpayers’ money for her vacations. The only taxpayer-funded expense was the Secret Service detail, which is standard for the President’s family.
I did some research trying ascertain the truth of the matter (something the author of this hit piece obviously didn’t bother to do). The source of the “$10 million in taxpayers’ money spent on Michelle Obama’s vacations?” The Nationa Enquirer,a tabloid rag notable only for the depth of its demonstrable lies, and yet it has been bounding round the rightwing echochambear as if it came directly from God.
Either “Shey” is a gullible idiot who is in sore need of a few lessons in critical thinking, or a reprehensible liar that should have his/her mouth washed out with soap.