Saturday, September 27, 2014

The Sequester’s True Cost

“Instead of reducing our deficits with a scalpel to get rid of programs we don’t need but keep vital investments that we do – you know, this same group has kept in place this meat cleaver called the sequester that is just slashing all kinds of important investments in education and research and our military.”  ~  President Barack Obama blaming Republican’s for the sequester

When the sequester began
, our President flew to 32 destinations aboard Air Force One, and only seven of the 32 destinations were directly related to politics.

It’s a pattern worth revising as politicians debate a government shutdown.

The flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Chattanooga, TN and back cost taxpayers $449,375 just so Obama could give a speech blaming the Republicans for it.

A flight Obama took on March 15th to give a speech on energy policy and again on May 29th for a Democratic party fundraiser cost $254,526 for a one way, one hour and twenty-five minute-long. A two-hour flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Miami on March 29th to give a speech on the topic of infrastructure was $359,500.

The government shutdown and the amount of money saved by canceling public tours of the White House was less than the cost of one of Obama’s vacations.

The Obama administration blamed the halting of the White House tours on the spending reductions mandated by sequestration and saved about $74,000 per week or close to $2 million over the year.

What you haven’t likely heard is the fact that those savings were roughly half the cost of Obama’s Christmas vacation to Hawaii last year. Documented by the ‘Hawaii Reporter,’ it was estimated the total cost of that trip was “at least $4 million,” the true cost could be nearly five times that. It does not include the cost of flying advance teams out to Hawaii and the separate Michelle flights she took in 2010 and 2011, with Obama catching up later. Estimates of the total cost for the four Hawaii vacations the Obama’s have taken during Christmastime 2009-2012 cost taxpayers in excess of $20 million.

Obama had returned from Hawaii to complete a deal on the Fiscal Cliff and then jetted back to Honolulu, adding an additional $3.24 million to the tab, bringing the cost of the 2012-1013 vacation to well over $7 million.

In 2011, Obama spent eleven days at a $50,000-per-week beachfront rental property with the cost of that trip to taxpayers reaching into the “millions.”

Obama’s golf outing with Tiger Woods cost the taxpayers “over a million dollars,” enough money to save 341 federal workers from a furlough.

The sequestration forced the Secret Service to cut $84 million from its budget.

The Obama’s African tour was estimated to have cost $100 million . . . $100 million that would fund 1,351 weeks or 26 years of White House tours.

During the months of the sequester, Obama took 10 flights aboard Air Force One during June, the most of any month. He took four trips in the months of March, April and August and five trips in the months of May and July. Travel that included trips through the Middle East, Central America, Europe and Africa.

A study by the National Taxpayers Union concluded “[w]ith four trips abroad over 18 days through the first six months of 2013, Obama is on pace to set the record for the most travel in a fifth year in office, if that precedent continues, he will be among the most-traveled U.S. chief executives in history by the time he leaves office.”

Millions of hardworking Americans are looking for jobs, struggling to pay their mortgages and make ends meet, all while Obama claims to care about the middle class as they continue to foot the bill.

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