The sad thing is, once the Obama's are done traveling on the public dime, there will still be plenty of dupes that will pay for their post-White House years. Barry will likely remain a world traveler, since there are golf courses all over the world.
I can't say I remember first families traveling so much as the Obama's, not even the Clintons abused it nearly as much (though Hillary was probably a close second, with travel-gate, remember that?).
What I most certainly do remember was all the bellyaching about George W. Bush spending so much time at his Crawford ranch, how it made him some sort of hooky-playing President, ad nauseam. I also remember the media chattering classes making a big deal out of Sarah Palin and the $100,000 wardrobe during her 2008 VP run (that no taxpayer was ever on the hook for), and they also made Nancy Reagan out as some sort of detached Marie Antoinette when she had new china ordered for the White House.
So the ease with which these same...people...are now able to explain away the First Lady's lavish taxpayer-funded trips is just, well, you know. Off the top of my head I am thinking of occasions where she commanded an entire separate Boeing 757 to transport her to Martha's Vineyard, and I think there was a separate flight for their dog; the trip to Spain with some friend of hers; the Hawaiian birthday present; the multi-billion dollar excursion to India.
I get it -- there are state visits and they can't go anywhere without large and elaborate security, which is expensive. That's not really even the story. The story, as always, is the stunning double standard from the so-called press.
The money for the new china Nancy Reagan ordered came from private funds, not the taxpayers. I did a search, Wiki was not the only confirmation, just one of them. Laura Bush also "unveiled" new china at the WH, also privately funded, info found
here. The Hildebeast brought in new china, too; no mention in the link of "privately funded", so I'm presuming we paid.
As for GW's "vacations" to his ranch, some things I read at the time said he went there rather than anywhere else to give the WH staff and the SS a
break; he didn't require the entourage there that the SS usually insists upon, not that the SS insisted the Mooch dog get its own plane, and that The Mooches take extraordinary advantage of in the worst sense.
I'm of the belief that the current WH resident and his bunch do not require the ridiculous lengths gone to in the name of security. The contingencies have contingencies which have contingencies, yet the limo-tank his privileged ass rides in got stuck on a gate-stake overseas. Didn't see that one coming, did "they"? If someone wants bad enough to get to him, he will be gotten to, regardless.
Let's see, what else? Mother Mooch's residency: I'd expect nothing else. Just as Valerie Jarrett, despite having no officially sanctioned place or title, gets her own security detail. What else are we paying for as regards her tenancy, I wonder.
But, it's as Glock wrote: double standards on reporting all the way down.
