You're cutting back: you can't afford to go out to eat, or you can't pay your utility or grocery bill. Maybe your pay has been cut, or you've been furloughed, or laid off. Skip that doctor visit, you don't have the money. Times are tough, so you tighten your belt: you have to be responsible.
Times are tough all over.
"Well, we are out of money now,"
stated the chief executive of a failed organization that's more than $11.3 trillion in debt. Yes that's right, those are President Obama's (D) own words in an interview on May 23, 2009. But that didn't stop him from taking a night out on the town in another state eight days later. The New York Post reported that the President, and his wife and their entourage, used a Gulfstream 500 and two helicopters to fly to New York City to take in a Broadway play and dinner. While the Obama administration wouldn't reveal the total bill for the American taxpayer, the cost for the transportation and security is estimated by the Daily Mail to be at least $70,000 (at current conversion rates). The President paid for the theater tickets and the meal himself.
What's next, a trip to Paris? Yes. Michelle, the President's wife, will join him for dinner in Paris reports a May 29, 2009 NY Times blog.
What's the difference between you and the President? When you're President of the United States and a modern day emperor, the taxpayers subsidize your entertainment. Not only do the taxpayers subsidize your entertainment, they're giddy at the prospect.
Sycophantic Andre Holland, an actor in the Broadway play that the Obamas attended, accurately stated:
"It's like in Shakespearean times, when the king would come to the show."
Before the show, slavish diners were thrilled to be frisked like untrustworthy royal subjects before dining near the emperor.
According to another wealthy spendthrift politician, NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, dropping such a pittance for a night out on the town is "just pro forma," and Bloomberg was "ecstatic" that the Obamas spent taxpayer money in NYC.
Spending $70,000 of taxpayer money for a night out might sound like a lot, but what about when its $30 billion? Because that's what the President pledged to GM just a few days after his night out. Seventy thousand pales by comparison.
Will the proles be so giddy when they realize that that the US government is so deeply in debt that the average obligation per household in America is over $500,000?
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1 comment:
Presidents, Senators and Representatives, Governors and Mayors, et.al., are in the business of ripping off the taxpayer--either directly through the legislation they pass, or indirectly through the omnipresent perks of their privileged positions. It's part of their job description. It comes with the territory of (you should pardon the expression) "public service." Your three-part series last November ("Other People's Money") states it well.
At least, Obama was being relatively prudent in the use of a Gulfstream 500. Every time his predecessor felt the urge to clear brush in Crawford (about once a month for eight years), he used Air Force One. As did Clinton and the first Bush whenever they had the urge for going. As did Ronald R., when he felt like a ride on his high horse at his California ranch.
Tally up all those trips (with security, staff, hangers-on, jet fuel, etc., etc.). While we're at it, add on all the Congressional junkets, thinly disguised as "fact-finding missions," of the past few decades. So, how many millions of dollars are we talking about here? Tally-ho, indeed!
We taxpayers are always the ones to pick up the tab, no matter what the extravagance. That's part of our job description.
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