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Dangerous Lunatic

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The White House Friday defended the first family’s upcoming weeklong trip to Africa, which could cost taxpayers up to $100 million, as “great bang for our buck.”

“There will be a great bang for our buck for being in Africa because when you travel to regions like Africa that don’t get a lot of presidential attention, you tend to have very longstanding and long-running impact from the visit,” said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Obama.

The Obamas’ trip, at a time of “sequestration” budget cuts, will take them to Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa from June 26 to July 3. Citing a confidential planning document, the Washington Post reported that the trip will cost between $60 million to $100 million.

The excursion will involve military cargo planes airlifting 56 support vehicles, including 14 limousines, and three trucks to carry bulletproof glass panels to cover the windows where the first family is set to stay. A Navy aircraft carrier or amphibious ship with a fully staffed medical trauma center will be stationed offshore in case of an emergency.

Fighter jets will fly in shifts to provide around-the-clock protection over the president’s airspace. The trip will reportedly involve hundreds of Secret Service agents.

The president and first lady Michelle Obama also had planned to take a safari in Tanzania, which reportedly would have required a special counterassault team to carry sniper rifles in the event of a threat from wild animals. But the safari was canceled in favor of a trip to Robben Island off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner.

Mr. Rhodes said Mr. Obama already has traveled extensively to Asia and to Latin America, and he said some people think the president’s trip to Africa “is overdue.”

“Africa’s a critically important region of the world,” he said. “This is a deeply substantive trip and one that has been highly anticipated on the continent. And, frankly, there’s been great disappointment that the president hasn’t traveled to Africa until this point, other than a brief stop in Ghana.”

Presidential travel is expensive; the cost alone of operating Air Force One is about $180,000 per flight hour. President Clinton’s trip to Africa in 1998 cost about $42.8 million. President George W. Bush made two trips to Africa during his two terms, although cost estimates aren’t available for those visits.

Mr. Obama is expected to spend part of the trip emphasizing the importance of global health programs, including HIV/AIDS prevention.

“We have huge interests there,” Mr. Rhodes said. “You’ve got some of the fastest growing economies in Africa. You’ve got a massively growing youth population. You’ve got key security and counterterrorism issues that we work on with African countries.”

Yuki_Windira's Husband

Invisible Hunter

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So... how about those White House tours...?

Wheezing Gekko

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Fun Fact, did you know living in the white house isn't free for a president? Him and his family have to pay for everything they use including their cooks, cost of the food and toiletries.

Hilarious Millionaire

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JamesWN
So... how about those White House tours...?

Dat!
People are upset over this?? Everything they listed sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Yes it costs a lot for him to go places, but that's because he's the freaking president. He kinda has a target on his back. Hell, I bet it costs thousands if he just wants to walk around the block.
Aint 1
Fun Fact, did you know living in the white house isn't free for a president? Him and his family have to pay for everything they use including their cooks, cost of the food and toiletries.


And it is all reimbursed. Its a shell game, nothing more.
On a side note would the OP rather they fly coach?

Chatty Lunatic

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Aint 1
Fun Fact, did you know living in the white house isn't free for a president? Him and his family have to pay for everything they use including their cooks, cost of the food and toiletries.

And who's paying that salary now, hm?

Chatty Lunatic

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Shama_okami
People are upset over this?? Everything they listed sounds perfectly reasonable to me. Yes it costs a lot for him to go places, but that's because he's the freaking president. He kinda has a target on his back. Hell, I bet it costs thousands if he just wants to walk around the block.


I think the main reason people are upset is because a lot of people are still jobless and hearing about this stuff doesn't build morale.

Savage Tactician

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95 million will be for the secret service to pay for prostitutes.

The remaining 5 million will be for the white house to hire photographers to make Obamer look good.

Dangerous Lunatic

Old Blue Collar Joe
Aint 1
Fun Fact, did you know living in the white house isn't free for a president? Him and his family have to pay for everything they use including their cooks, cost of the food and toiletries.


And it is all reimbursed. Its a shell game, nothing more.
On a side note would the OP rather they fly coach?
The OP would rather Obama stop blowing taxpayer money on bullshit and start doing his damn job that he was hired to do and not be a damn celebrity.

Apocalyptic Comrade

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Fly coach with the rest of us Mr. Pres. It'll substantially cut costs, particularly if you deal with the "We've overbooked; would you care to take the next flight out?" bit the rest of us get. It's already very expensive; It would be nice if the man and his family played 'Middle class family on a budget' every so often. His six guards, the two extra men for security..it'll be cheaper if they just went 2nd or 3rd class like the rest of us.

I can see why the OP has issues with the president's flight plans. Unless all of Congress is forced into minimum wage until they stop taking three weeks and giving themselves raises however, I don't see much change for the US financially. Congress would approve this flight and all the first class service it entails.
Aint 1
Fun Fact, did you know living in the white house isn't free for a president? Him and his family have to pay for everything they use including their cooks, cost of the food and toiletries.
don't they pay him like 400,000 a year, doubt the expenses eat much of that salary.

Wheezing Gekko

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coolestball
Aint 1
Fun Fact, did you know living in the white house isn't free for a president? Him and his family have to pay for everything they use including their cooks, cost of the food and toiletries.
don't they pay him like 400,000 a year, doubt the expenses eat much of that salary.
Well it is a job, so he has to get paid and I unno, I just thought it was an interesting fact o.o
Aint 1
coolestball
Aint 1
Fun Fact, did you know living in the white house isn't free for a president? Him and his family have to pay for everything they use including their cooks, cost of the food and toiletries.
don't they pay him like 400,000 a year, doubt the expenses eat much of that salary.
Well it is a job, so he has to get paid and I unno, I just thought it was an interesting fact o.o
it is, but the president's basically won the lotto. He's going to be paid 1.6Million dollars over four years.

Wheezing Gekko

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coolestball
Aint 1
coolestball
Aint 1
Fun Fact, did you know living in the white house isn't free for a president? Him and his family have to pay for everything they use including their cooks, cost of the food and toiletries.
don't they pay him like 400,000 a year, doubt the expenses eat much of that salary.
Well it is a job, so he has to get paid and I unno, I just thought it was an interesting fact o.o
it is, but the president's basically won the lotto. He's going to be paid 1.6Million dollars over four years.
If you think about it it's nothing compared to multimillion dollar companies.

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