http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/special-investigation-obama-blown-444-million-travel-vacations-world-burns-barack-fiddlesSPECIAL INVESTIGATION: OBAMA’S BLOWN $44.4 MILLION ON TRAVEL & VACATIONS!
Published on: August 22, 2014
by NATIONAL ENQUIRER staff
THE ENQUIRER exposes America’s most expensive president EVER!
IT’S champagne wishes and caviar dreams at the White House as the Obama administration turns into the most expensive presidency this country has ever seen, an eye-opening National ENQUIRER investigation has discovered.
While race riots raged in Ferguson, Mo. following the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer, President Obama was enjoying yet another family vacation – this one in Martha’s Vineyard.
In fact, Obama waited three days before appealing for calm from his posh vacation retreat 1,200 miles away from the unrest in the St. Louis suburb.
Meanwhile, the Commander-in-Spending has blown a whopping $44.4 million in taxpayers’ money just on travel and family vacations since taking office in 2009 – and he’s done more overseas travel than any previous president, our probe shows.
“The cost of the presidency is out of control!” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton told The
ENQUIRER.
The respected watchdog concludes that Obama is living like a king and “doesn’t care about the costs to the taxpayers.”
The spending revelation comes as the rest of our cash-strapped government tightens its belt and Obama fends off mounting criticism for spending nearly $2 million on five lavish state dinner parties, including an incredible 2009 shindig for the prime minister of India that cost $572,187.
Gary Walters, who served as White House chief usher for 20 years before retiring in 2006, said a state dinner eats up about $200,000 – not including any of the Obama frills, such as an outside party planner, celeb chefs and entertainers like Beyoncé.
“When I was around, it was much less,” Walters revealed to The ENQUIRER. “The money spent seems a lot higher than I remember. It was surprising to me when I heard about it.”
The total dinner party cost is expected to increase by another million once the State Department’s Office of the Chief of Protocol, which pays for the dinners, reveals the cost of two other dinners – involving Great Britain in 2012 and France in 2014.
Repeated requests for information by The ENQUIRER were ignored. Presidential spending has always remained a secret for security reasons, and Fitton says his group has had to sue the government to get information about the Obamas’ travel expenditures.
“If someone has something to hide and they don’t want you to know and you have to go to court to get the info, I think you can fairly conclude that they found the information to be troubling as well,” Fitton declared.
Nothing seems too good for the Obamas, who delight in giving themselves the Red Carpet treatment. The most expensive Obama trip was the astronomical $15.9 million spent in 2013 for an African adventure followed by a Hawaiian family vacation, according to
Judicial Watch.
Michelle and the two first daughters broke the bank on a 2013 trip to Dublin. Incredibly, the First Lady and an entourage booked 30 rooms at the five-star Shelbourne Hotel – and she pampered herself in a 1,500-square-foot suite at a rate of $3,500 a night. The trip, during which Michelle explored her husband’s Irish roots, cost taxpayers $7.9 million!
By comparison, taxpayers spent about $20 million for President George W. Bush’s trips because he usually preferred unwinding
at his Crawford, Texas, ranch.
As of March 2014, records show that Obama has also spent more time traveling internationally than any other U.S. president. Bush spent 116 days on 28 trips, compared to Obama’s 119 days on 31 trips since 2009, according to a report by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation.
The President should keep his bags packed – he still has about two more years in office!a
