The Obama presidency increasingly resembles a modern-day Ancien Régime: extravagant and out of touch with the American people. The Telegraph. They pegged the issue dead on. Nice of the Brits to do that for the American press.
…the extravagance and arrogance on display among the White House elites that rule America as though they had been handed some divine right to govern with impunity.
But shall we give te benefit of the doubt? A mom and daughter trip? That is a tough request. If it wasn’t such a blatant disregard for the casual and indiscriminate use of American taxpayers’ money for personal play, maybe the public might have an ounce of consideration. But that is not to be.
It is the kind of impunity that has been highlighted on the world stage this week by Michelle Obama’s hugely costly trip to Spain, which has prompted a New York Post columnist Andrea Tantaros to dub the First Lady a contemporary Marie Antoinette. As The Telegraph reports, while the Obamas are covering their own vacation expenses such as accommodation, the trip may cost US taxpayers as much as $375,000 in terms of secret service security and flight costs on Air Force Two.
The timing of this lavish European vacation could not have come at a worse moment, when unemployment in America stands at 10 percent, and large numbers of Americans are fighting to survive financially in the wake of the global economic downturn. It sends a message of indifference, even contempt, for the millions of Americans who are struggling just to feed their families on a daily basis and pay the mortgage, while the size of the national debt balloons to Greek-style proportions.
Well now that Michelle Obama has come back home to catch all the heat over that splash in Spain, an excuse must be served. How convenient that it took all this time to come up with one. But it isn’t the actual excuse, so much as it is the speed at which it made it out to the public for cover. It should have emanated from the White House much sooner than after the trip back home, and the subsequent sting felt coming off the taxpayer-paid plane with taxpayer paid Secret Service agents.
Why Michelle Obama Vacationed in Spain: To Be With Grieving Friend. Politics Daily AOL.
The Spain vacation put the first dent in her brand since becoming first lady. She was criticized for choosing Spain’s Costa del Sol instead of the Gulf Coast, where tourism is hurting because of the BP oil spill; for going on another vacation when people in the U.S. face tough economic times; and for incurring taxpayer expenses for the trip.
Ya think?!?
“Michelle Antoinette. ‘Let them eat Gulf shrimp.'”
Image courtesy of Michael Ramirez 08/09/10 via http://www.investors.com/EditorialCartoons/Cartoon.aspx?id=543149.
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