Let's End The Right Winger's Nonsense - Bush's Vacations Cost A LOT More Than Obama's

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

It's that time of year again! Right wingers are in a tizzy about how the First Family is on vacation in Hawaii and how much it costs the taxpayers. After doing a little bit of research, I found this gem from last year.

Bush Spent 5 Times More On Flights To Texas Than Obama‘s Christmas Vacation Costs

Those who criticize the cost of Obama’s Christmas vacation don’t want you to know that George W. Bush spent at least $20 million taxpayer dollars just on flights to his ranch in Crawford.

The right wing has been outraged at the four million dollar plus price tag for Obama’s family Christmas vacation, and they constantly hold George W. Bush up as an example of how thrifty a president should be when going on vacation.

The problem is that W. wasn’t thrifty. He was the most expensive vacation president in US history. Not only did Bush spend more days on vacation than any other president, but he used Air Force One more often while on vacation than any other president.

During Bush’s two terms, the cost of operating Air Force One ranged from $56,800 to $68,000 an hour. Bush used Air Force One 77 times to go to his ranch in Crawford, TX. Using the low end cost of $56,800, Media Matters calculated that each trip to Crawford cost taxpayers $259,687 each time, and $20 million total for Bush’s ranch flights.

If cost of the flight was the only expense involved to taxpayers Bush’s vacations would still seem rather economical, but there is more, much more. Unlike the Obama’s $4 million Christmas vacation price tag, which includes the cost of everything from transportation to accommodations for the First Family, the White House staff, and the White House press corps, Bush’s numbers only include the cost of flying the president to Crawford. The cost of transporting and accommodating staff, media, friends and family is not included in Bush’s vacation numbers.

http://www.politicususa.com/cost-obama-christmas-vacation-bush.html

[oddoneout]

1. this article

is from last year bro.

[zbdent]

2. So then it means that Bush's vacations cost merely

4.7 times Obama's, since he had to cut it short.

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

3. I know...I pointed that out

I just thought it was still relevant because I saw today how the right wing is in an uproar once again about the cost of President Obama's vacations, and that article helps to put things into perspective!

[Skittles]

8. it is indeed relevant

it is only irrelevant to people who don't think President Obama deserves ANY vacation

[mchill]

5. Did Bush?

I know he flew from Crawford, back to DC, to sign that bill to move Terry Schiavo's case into Federal Court, but it seems like he flew right back to Crawfor, otherwise I'm might not have remembered how expensive that little event was for US taxpayers.

[jmowreader]

14. Not even sure why he did that

The Crawford house is equipped with a full office, AF1 is equipped with a full office and insurance agents have fax machines. There is no law requiring bills be signed at the White House; St. Ronnie signed several in California.

[Skittles]

7. so???

and???

[KansDem]

4. That goes without saying.

Bush's August 2001 vacation cost 3,000 American lives...

[amuse bouche]

6. Worst vacay ever

[thebard77]

9. This is tired.

There are plenty of other examples of how the republicans are complete failures. I'm quite tired of the constant comparison between Bush and Obama. Its pointless. We're moving into Obama's second term and its enough already. There are billions of examples of how the repukes are complete failures. Continuing to bring up Bush makes democrats seem obsessed and incapable of defending the president without resorting to Bush comparisons.

[karynnj]

10. Not on this.

This shows that the costs involved in ANY President vacationing anywhere - other than the WH - costs a lot of money. The reason it is different than an upper class family of 4 from DC is that as President, there is a huge cost for security.

It would be a very ill advised photo op if the President, Michelle and the girls got in line at Dulles and then took coach seats on a scheduled flight to Hawaii. Not to mention, think of the screening the secret service would have to give to everyone else. Not to mention, they could not simply book a condo on the beach. Again, they need security.

The EASIEST way to dispatch this is with costs of Bush II, Bush I and Reagan costs. The fact they all owned places they usually went to did NOT make the cost appreciably less. (Not to mention, if Obama had free use of secluded getaways from a friend/supporter the uproar would be LARGER as this would be called unethical.

PS This sounds pretty defensive - the FACT that Obama spoke of where the country was economically when he took over was incredibly relevant - and, in fact, was a version of the Reagan "Are you better off than you were 4 years ago". The country is still not economically healthy, but no one in the mainstream things we are moving into uncharted areas where we could go off a financial cliff. (The end of the year threat is nothing like 2008.) Not to mention, it was not just Democrats - a very significant % of the population blame Bush more than Obama for the economic problems.)

[amuse bouche]

11. That's your opinion

Most disagree

[2pooped2pop]

15. lol

spoken like a true.....

[DCKit]

16. But it's not pointless.

I got one of these emails last year re: FLOTUS and answered with some of the pertinent details about Jr* and ended with...

"You're not racist, but let a sister take a vacation...."

[GoCubsGo]

17. No. What is "tired" is...

...listening to the republicans bitch and piss and moan about how many taxpayer dollars President Obama is allegedly wasting whenever he leaves the damn White House. Or, how much his wife spends on her clothes. Or, how much it costs taxpayers to guard his daughter when she goes a way on a school trip. Or, how much the Christmas decorations for the White House cost. And, on and on and on... It's damn tiresome, too. And, it's why people keep bringing up the amount of money Dumbya spent on his numerous vacations. We never heard even a peep from them when he flew down to his fake ranch every month. Or, when he spent two weeks groping beach volleyball players at the Beijing Olympics. And, we're bloody sick of those hypocritical crybabies.

[Scurrilous]

12. K & R

[ErikJ]

13. Presidential death threats up 400% since Bush- 30 a day.

Maybe if Republicans werent threatening to kill Obama so much, his flights would cost less.

"Since Mr Obama took office, the rate of threats against the president has increased 400 per cent from the 3,000 a year or so under President George W. Bush, according to Ronald Kessler, author of In the President's Secret Service."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/barackobama/5967942/Barack-Obama-faces-30-death-threats-a-day-stretching-US-Secret-Service.html