In a move that is rich in irony, President Obama agreed Tuesday night to sign an emergency deficit reduction bill that does almost nothing to rein in spending and then jetted out to Hawaii to resume his vacation at an extra cost of more than $3 million to taxpayers.
The price tag is in addition to more than $4 million that is already being spent on the Obamas’ Hawaii idyll, bringing the total cost of the excursion to well over $7 million.
The added cost was incurred because by the time the Obamas return from Hawaii – whenever that is – the president will have used Air Force One to travel to Honolulu and back twice.
Obama was forced to return from Hawaii just after Christmas to complete negotiations to avoid the Fiscal Cliff, talks resulting in the bill that was passed by Congress last night. Obama resisted significant spending cuts throughout the negotiations, and the final legislation relies almost solely a new taxes to reduce the deficit.
Air Force One is known to cost about $180,000 an hour to fly. Based on an estimated 18 hours roundtrip flying time for the jet between Washington and Honolulu, the travel cost alone of Obama’s decision to return to Hawaii amounts to around $3.24 million. And that doesn’t include the price tag for the massive security operation required to move the president or the cost of the cargo plane that follows Air Force One around.
The Obamas could have saved taxpayers millions by returning from Hawaii together after Christmas and then resuming their vacation at one of the many ritzy resorts that lie outside of Washington. If the beach is a must, even a trip to Florida would have been far less expensive.
Or they could have simply stayed at the White House or Camp David, each a luxurious government-run installation, billing taxpayers a relative pittance.
Obama will get a full day of vacation in today, landing in Hawaii early in the morning.
Thank you for reading White House Dossier! Today I’m reminding everyone that you may also subscribe. Just enter your email address here. You’ll receive the free OBAMAGRAM newsletter and updates on breaking White House news. No spam, and we won’t share your email address.
512 thoughts on “Obama Returns to Hawaii at an Added Cost of Over $3 Million”
when is the general public going to wake up and realize this man has disdain for them? He is in every sense of the term an African Colonialist..wanting to get “payback” at the white man for all of the “injustice” they have done. He is a die hard national socialist hell bent on putting the government in charge of everything…in the guise of a partnership
“I know we said we’d go to Walt Disney World after the election, kids, but Mr. Obama needs mommy and daddy’s money to make life better for everyone. And besides, planning ‘staycations’ for another four years will be a great family project!”
I’ve been saying since 2008 that this would be The “REPARATIONS PRESIDENCY”. It continues…
Agree!
Ditto
Don’t forget there is a twin/second presidential 747 that follows along on every trip the president takes.
Hmmm..where were the calculations when Bush flew back from his 6 week vacation in Texas for Terry Schiavo legislation. Keith needs to get a real job.
The straw man argument that the progressives keep throwing out about GW Bush, and his trips to Crawford are getting really old. The cost of one Bush trip to Crawford was approx. $400,000 one way. So a round trip to the ranch would be less then a million dollars.
Obama’s trip to Hawaii, on the other hand cost approx. $1,580,000 one way, or approx. $3.2 million. So, Bush could take three trips to the ranch for what it costs Obama to take one trip to a place that he has not lived in in years, a place where he has to rent a room (if only it was a room). Bush however went to his own property and did not shut down an entire portion of a community so that he could have his little trips to get shaved ice.
There is a BIG difference.
So….if Bush took 87 trips to Texas according to Mark Knoller of CBS who tracks these things that would be about 70 million dollars. Are you really this dumb?
You are wasting your time trying to reason with drones, Shofar. This fella is a one-trick pony – forever blinded by Bush Derangement Syndrome.
Susan-those that can’t deal with facts cast stones. You are a stonehead/bonehead. Why is the cost of AF1 applicable to Obama but not to Bush. You are the deranged one. Oh, I see, only Democratic Presidents fly on Air Force One. Funny but Bush 41 flew over my house for 12 years as VP and President to get to Maine
John, John, John – Those were two different Bushes.
The one that flew over your house was George HW Bush. The one going to Crawford was George W Bush. And you make our argument for us. Both Bushes went to THEIR OWN homes, not to a five star type resort that is paid for by the taxpayers.
Add to the argument is that during both Bushes administrations, the country was not being asked to tighten its belt while the modern day aristocracy dined on lobster and kobe beef.
I don’t think there is anyone here who would begrudge the POTUS travel. It is his constant telling us that we all need to have skin in the game, and everyone needs to pay their fair share, all the while he is hob-nobbing with the glitterati and using the federal coffers as a personal ATM.
Imagine if Bush had done this?
Bush would take a working vacation to his Texas ranch, and the media hounded him relentlessly. Obama takes extravagant vacations that add millions to the deficit each time, and not a peep from David Gregory.
FED.
UP.
I honestly hope the owebamas choke to death on poi.
I think you mean that you hope Obama the Communist chokes on his imported Kobe beef. Poi is for the little people.
I’ve seen comments on other sites wishing Obama would get cancer.
What a terrible, horrible, heartless, unfeeling thing to wish on cancer cells.
Back to vacation… Yay! Priorities!
“In the rare event of an erection lasting more than 4 hours, seek immediate medical help to avoid long-term injury.”
Drudge and the rest of you really need to get to a Dr.
If anyone needs to see a doctor, it is the progressives. They have had an erection for the past four years, and are screwing the American people.
Hey, look at the bright side. At least Obama isn’t putting us through the expense of flying back and forth to his real home in Kenya.
HE DOES NOT GIVE A DEM ABOUT SPENDING PEOPLE’S MONEY
HE SHOULD BE INPITCHED.
We ain’t seen nothin’ yet! No telling where they’ll jet off to for the next 4 years
I went awol after the election because I couldn’t stomach the Obamas anymore.
Thanks Keith for keeping up with these outrages.
Happy New Year to everyone.
Janice from http://www.grannyjanandjihadkitty.com/
Welcome back!
So glad to see you back, Granny Jan. We’ve missed you!
Thanks Susan and Shofar! I was totally blown away by the election. I dealt with it by disengaging. I’m sure I’m not alone.
Join the club! Welcome back JG!
I’m tired of paying for the Yobama family vacations, wonder how many American families could not to afford to take family on vacation in 2012?? How many weeks of vacation does he get anyway?
Screw the govt! I quit my job a couple of months ago, and went on unemployment, just so I dont pay any taxes. At least I did something.
Give me liberty or I’ll get up and get it myself!!!!!
I don’t want to hear any more complaints about Obama ever again. You people voted him into office…TWICE. You get what you deserve.
Unfortunately this only applies to half the country – all of us have to live under this oppressive imperial dictator
This is what all the ghetto politicians do. Just like the Detroit “convict” mayor Kilpatrick, Obama is taking his reparations and could care less where the money comes from.
His comment about the next issue (debt limit)facing congress. “He won’t comprise on- Their debt!
Wow what a thief. And no one to call him out.
Boehner must go, they have something on him?
American voters DESERVE this man and his wife.
Only half of the US voters deserve Obama.
Nearly half voted against Obama.
Americans are being played for suckers by this con man. Sign this petition to stop spending taxpayer money on the President’s vacations: http://wh.gov/Q0l1
I really, really hate to speak of my president in such a manner, but this man is SCUM. We DO NOT have a spare dine anywhere to be found, so that he didn’t ‘suck it up’ for the people after signing a bill that cuts no spending is atrocious.
Anyone got an over-under on the number of golf rounds he plays while he’s out there this time? My money’s on 5.
Other Liberals and Democrats will support Obama if this trip cost 50 million dollars. Money is no object to these lifetime mathematicians b/c it simply is not thiers. We should be in the freakin streets people.
Welcome to the world of Papa Doc II — Mugabe II
Great article, but somewhat ignorant.
The $180,000 figure is not hard and fast to the number of hours flown. That is to say that an increase in the number of hours flown will not directly convert to that much money. In the number comes from taking the total costs of fuel, flight consumables, depot level repairs, aircraft overhaul and engine overhaul – along with things like hanger storage and the like for the entire year, and then dividing it into the number of hours flown.
Adding significant hours does not mean each of those cost items goes up in proportion, in fact, with more use, the cost per hour in some cases goes down.
The other part is that you need to break out the costs related to operating the plane in general, and the costs in providing the enhanced maintenance and support required to keep the plane and all of it’s complex electronics in operation. The plane itself isn’t costing even $40,000 an hour (you can charter a 747-400 for that sort of price), but the maintenance of the plane (and securing it as AF1) is extremely high for all the systems required for the President to be able to work and be safe as he travels.
So yes, it cost an extra 3 million – sort of. Really, if the plane had stayed on the ground, it would have incurred probably 50% or more of those costs anyway, making the figure sort of irrelevant.
The true hypocracy lies in a political part that holds the American people ransom so that a few rich guys can pay less tax. That cost way more than a few million, trust me!
the government (the real upper class)spend all the taxpayers money…run up the bill to $25 trillion..then the real pain will begin…fiscal grand canyon..:)
days of end of entitlements will come..about 10 years from now i guess…
government officials will simply tell you what they want you to hear for now…i feel sorry for the ignorant, uninformed, and apathetic people when they realize their future actuallly looks dimmer each day..
Back in 1993 the Government murdered 21 children some they shot and the rest they burned alive to disarm some God fearing people in Waco Tex.
My question is how many children will they murder trying to disarm the whole country and how many will CNN,NBC,CBS AND FOX be willing to call enough or will they cover up the murders of children like they did in the Waco massacre?
List of 21 Children Murdered by the ATF and FBI at Waco Tex. 1993
Lisa Martin 13 Sheila Martin, Jr. 15
Rachel Sylvia 12 Hollywood Sylvia 1
Joseph Martinez 8 Abigail Martinez 11
Crystal Martinez 3 Isaiah Martinez 4
Audrey Martinez 13 Melissa Morrison 6
Chanel Andrade 1 Cyrus Koresh 8
Star Koresh 6 Bobbie Lane Koresh 2
Dayland Gent 3 Page Gent 1
Mayanah Schneider 2 Startle Summers 1
Serenity Jones 4 Chica Jones 2
Little One Jones 2
Welcome to the new norm. The problem with a ship going down is I’m afraid all will be lost. The Titanic has nothing over the good old USA.
http://cdn.memegenerator.net/instances/400x/32791080.jpg
Cycle this sucker.
just another dumb lazy……….. well, you know.
Why not it is not his money… Spending other peoples money is his finally crafted art !!!!!
Spend what we dont have is the Democrat way….
Give free phones and food and rent and entertainment and anything else ….
Oh any you slug workers get back to work so the GRASS HOPPERS can play….
How I loathe this maggot.
“Obama was forced to return from Hawaii just after Christmas to complete negotiations to avoid the Fiscal Cliff, talks resulting in the bill that was passed by Congress last night. ”
He was not forced, it was part of the plan.
Nice to be the King! Spends money just like trailer trash who won the power ball. Play a little basketball, catch a few waves, smoke a few joints, sniff a little coke, just a average day in the life of a dictator
What a big spender this guy is !!! Just like all the other Marxists of the world, they are using the people’s money to take care of their expensive vacations and other things which most people cannot enjoy. But then again, the American people voted him again, shame on you !!!
How did this Joker ever get re-elected – are there that many TAKERS out there? Just for laughs – I wrote down how much money I made over my working life of 40 years – it comes to about $1,075,000. TOTAL. During that time I got married and had 4 beautiful children. We always had a home of our own and we always had 2 cars. We also were able to take vacations EVERY YEAR. My wife was able to stay at home with the children until the youngest started school full-time (at home Mom for 15 years). Then she went back to college to become a RN and she worked for 20 years – part time – she made about $600,000 in the 20 years – so together we made about $1,675,000. over our 41 years of marriage – and did and went everywhere we wanted and needed to go.
So, this knucklehead that you call our president WASTED, AND I DO MEAN WASTED OVER $7,000,000. on a f’ing vacation – may ALL THE POLITICIANS, AND I DO MEAN ALL OF THEM – MAY THEY ROT IN HELL!!!
Typical Obama…lets Biden do the negotiating, then has a photo op, then makes a boring speech. No leaves…back on vacation. He is really disgusting. Talk about being out of touch with the people!
The Hitler of our era……droves of brainwashed lemmings that still support him in denial of the truth of this president. He is out to dismantle and destroy america how else would he be able to become the dictator he truly want to become, not with a thriving economy and country. Well to all of you that voted for him….you’re gonna get much more then you asked for I’m afraid. Hail the douche bag and chief.
This is a none story. How many times did Bush take a vacation and did you calculate how much the Americans spent for his trips. As I stated, this is a none story.
Okay, enough with this Bush/Crawford crap. You want numbers, here they are, so read it and weep. According to the DailyKos, that bastion of conservative thinking (note sarcasm), Bush took 77 trips to Crawford during his tenure as President, at a cost of $226,072 a trip. Let’s get out the handy little calculator, because my little pea brain can’t figure out a HUGE number like this, and the total for 8 years of trips to Crawford cost the taxpayers, ready for this – $17,407,544.
Now, lets compare our current President’s Christmas vacation travels. Four years at, let’s be conservative, and use $3.5 million for each year. We know it’s more because of the separate flights taken by Mrs. Obama, but we won’t even include that. So, $3.5million times 4 years equals $14 million. So the Obamas have one more trip to Hawaii and they will have equaled all the trips Bush made to Crawford in 8 years.
This all said, I would highly recommend that the Obots look for another way to compare Obama and Bush as far as travel.
Thanks for playing!
Willie obviously is a freaking troll. No war was “started on a lie”. Democrats voted for the wars too! The CIA believed Iraq had WMD as well as the UN. Did they lie?
And just how are the Democrats “getting our spending under control” you moron? Obama has added over $6 TRILLION in debt in just 4 years! And Democrats have actually wanted MORE spending! Your talking points come straight from MSNBC or Media Matters.
The president, be it Obama or whoever is in office — needs a vacation with, his or her, family!
Have we forgetting, Bush II was the most vacationing president on record!…….
Read the above comment on cost comparison, and realize that your argument is full of donkey crap.
nice job on the math part. I have to agree with you, the other side moans allot but never puts up the math to prove it.
btw I left some $$$ figures attached to your earlier post (page 1 to this thread) on other aircraft costs. I may be a tad bit low on AF Two’s per hour cost.. I would say you might want to X 5 it. No one has ever said what it costs to fly it.
You people are so petulant. Bush didn’t give a shit about the tax payer”s money. Starting a war on a lie, and charging it. Did you bitch about that Keith Koffler? Write something useful, and take your partisan bullshit to Fox News. Your party run up the debt, and the Democrats always get it under control. A Republican President has never balanced the budget. All they do is run up debt, and try to start a fucking war, so their wealthy friends can make money off of weapons. That’s a fact!! Why don’t you take your family to Florida? Do you have a family?
Folks just don’t get it. Obama is a muslim and he intends to destroy our nation. When will you wake up? No America- loving President would act the way he does.
Let me guess, you watch a lot of Fox News? You go, girl!
How about we give the first family a $5 mil per year budget.
Anything over that comes out of their pocket. Also I think 4’weeks vacation is all he should get. Since when did the president and family get the all inclusive vacation for 4 years. King of freeloaders knows his base well. Damn lazy.
All Hail to our Great Imperial Leader – He can no no wrong – he deserves total luxury for himself and His Great Imperial Wife while the peons slave to support his excesses – All Hail to NoBama
Yeah, folks voted for him saying he would care for ‘the poor’. Well we are all poorer now but not him. His high and mightly and royal lifestyle continues. Stupid America.
You sound like a lot of fun. Wanna hang out?
Leave your god shit out, no such thing dumbasses
We need to raise taxes again. How are we going to manage to pay for the obama family vacations. mochelle hasn’t had a vacation from the vacuous chair and the girls need a little time in Cancun. RAISE TAXES NOW!
Common POS
Democrat is just another word for COMMUNIST YOU MORONS!, obama is a mooslum traitor
A mind is a terrible thing to waste. But if you’re going to waste it hating other people, this is as harmless a place as any.
Obama absolutely does NOT care what happens to our once great country. The more he can bankrupt us and make us into his dream country like France or Spain the better. It is obvious he cares nothing for our Founding Fathers or our great culture and history. He hates it and wants to stamp it out forever. So far he’s doing a good job, with the Democrats helping…
I need to hate somebody this morning, too. Boooooooo! That feels so much better. Thanks.
Comments are closed.