BY MALIA ZIMMERMAN – President Barack Obama and his family have taken a $4 million vacation in Kailua, Hawaii, each Christmas, since 2008, courtesy of the nation’s taxpayers.
According to a new book – “Presidential Perks Gone Royal” –by Author Robert Keith Gray, Hawaii Reporter’s investigation into the vacation expenses on the island of Oahu merely scratches the surface of the $1.4 billion the taxpayers spend in just one year for transportation, housing, staffing, security and entertainment for President Obama and first family.
Gray, who worked within the White House under three presidents and had close ties with two more, notes that while other presidents have taken advantage of perks, the amount of money spent on the first family has risen substantially under the Obama administration, and must be brought under control.
Gray also notes the inequity of taxpayer dollars being spent by Obama for his re-election effort by using Air Force One to travel between campaign stops.
Some of the examples of presidential perks that are highlighted in Gray’s book:
- There are 26 cabin crewmembers and five chefs on Air Force One.
- The president’s dog gets its own high-paid staffer, who is always on duty, paid an annual salary of $102,000 last year.
- On at least one airline flight, Bo the dog and his handler were only passengers aboard.
- The president has a full-time movie projectionist in the White House theater who sleeps at the White House and is on duty 24 hours a day in case anyone needs to see a movie.
- First Lady Michelle Obama spent more than 42 days on vacation in one year with security, travel and accommodations paid for by taxpayers.
- And because the president can appoint high-paid staffers without Senate confirmation, Obama has 469 senior staffers and 43 “czars.”
- 226 are paid more than $100,000 a year, and 77 are paid as much as $172,000 per year.
- In 2009, Gray said the military payroll at Camp David was $8 million and were put there serve the First Family and its guests.
“The British spent $57.8 Million on its royal family last year. We Americans spent nearly $2 Billion housing, transporting, entertaining, staffing, our First Family and paying a hefty portion of the president’s campaign expenses,” Gray said.
Gray notes that responsible citizens want the President to be “safe, comfortable and happy” but he maintains the “unchecked growth of out-of control perks, bestowed on this duly elected official without oversight by any individual or governing body, are a dangerous surrender of the democratic process because the seated president has a virtually insurmountable re-election advantage over his opponent.”
Gray said what he discovered during his research for this book led him to view the Obama lifestyle and administration as “our presidency going royal.”
Gray asks: “With our current president’s billion- dollar lifestyle, can we reasonably expect a president to identify with the real-world problems of his citizens, when tens of millions of them are currently unemployed?”
See more about the book on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0974810355/thedaical-20
Is anyone really surprised by this? Really?
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I would love to be able to afford a trip to Hawaii for be holidays. Best trip we ever had was a week in Kauai. But not having a raise in 4 years and costs going thru the roof we will be staying home. Nice to see the Emperor is getting some much needed time off.
You are not the most powerful person in the free world….are you on call 24/7? Grow up! Lots of us never get any vacations
He works harder than everyone who reads this article and is under constant stress. He lives in a goldfish bown. What do you want him to do? Enjoy family life on a public beach somewhere? Any one who critizes the Presient's vacation is a first class jerk, who simply doesn't like the President.
Mr Klein
Fish bown is spelled fish Bowl! he does not work hard and is NOT under stress he have people do his dirty work for him.under the pretense that his a nice guy, he hates White Americans is like he is trying to pay back for the slave days, guess what my family never ownd a slave, neither was Obama family a slave. his a Muslim that is trying to bring this Country Down, no one asked him to run for Office he did at his own free will, so if he can carry the Flag get out of the Parade. and you must be a kiss ass Democrat.
[…] https://www.hawaiireporter.com/obama-lifestyle-criticized-as-royal-author-documents-presidential-vaca… […]
Listen,
those of you begrudging Obama Benghazi of his vacations should lighten up, after all it takes a lot of work to fundamentally transform this nation into a socialist utopia on the ashes of capitalism, and run all those guns into the Mexican cartels. Give em some slack.
Absolute nonsense from top to bottom. Hope you guys are amusing yourselves because you're not doing anything else.
Wonder if Obama's supporters on the continent know about his high school, Punahou. Barack loves the high class, expensive lifestyle.
Google Punahou High School, Hawaii…..a expensive private high school in Hawaii state…..how did he afford it?
His mom, & grandma, how did they afford it? NOW that's fuzzy.
obama,his mom and dad,and his grandma were all connected to CIA. maybe that' how barry could afford Punahou. https://www.lewrockwell.com/orig10/ross-s3.1.1.htm…
Liberal politicians of Hawaii adore the President for spending the taxpayer money on luxury vacations. And they will circle his wagon to defend Obama for the rest of their lives.
He should move his wagon back to hellhole Kenya. There's another fitting expression, "You can't put a high hat on a pig."
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