He is the president of the United States when he poops it costs the taxpayers 100 times more than it costs me to poop. Does that mean he should stop pooping?

I don’t think there is anything wrong with him taking his wife to an opera in NY, in fact I think it is great to see him setting an example for the rest of us on how to act as a couple, especially after the Clintons.

The reality is it is going to costs a bucketload for him to do anything since he will alway have a secret service crowd with him and he he can’t really be flying coach.

I wonder how much per mile it cost us for Clinton to Jog. I remember a bit of a hubub for Bush #41 when he went boating in maine the taxpayers had to pay for the coast guard to accompany him. It’s the price we pay keep our leaders safe.

I’m all for it.

The far right will look for ay opportunity to critize Obama just as the far left did with Bush.

Let’s rise above the mud folks.

I can be a pretty rabid republican partisan, Anne, but the trip to New York doesn’t bother me.

We have decided that a President needs protection all the time and he can only travel in certain vehicles and in certain ways. So, when the President goes on a date, we pay for his security detail and he rides in government vehicles. Even if the date is in New York. That’s just the reality.

I don’t think the government should pay for his restaurant bill (it doesn’t) or for his tickets (it doesn’t).

Remember that no matter where he goes, or what he’s doing, there is a guy standing about 5 feet away with a suitcase containing the codes to launch our nuclear arsenal. The President is never off duty. So yeah, I think we should pay for the gas regardless of where he goes.

BTW, to the extent it makes a difference, he didn’t take the 747, he flew on a business jet. It’s not like the President can fly commercial.

We only pay the guy $400,000 a year, let him have the perks.

annegb,

Does it also bother you that the governor of Alaska has the state fly her family around?

There are a lot of expenses associated with the presidency, as SPB pointed out. Anything he does is going to incur what seems to us to be extraordinary expense, including sitting at home. At least he didn’t hold up airline traffic at SFO so he could get an in-flight haircut…

I am with Jota. Let that man also have a life.

Yes, yes, it all bothers me–are you sure the prophet went to the game for free? JM made the best point.

But it’s like the million dollar weddings. What are people thinking? Rich people talk “green” and preach to the choir, then they blow enough on one day’s event to house 20 poor families!

No, I’m bugged. I just am. You can’t talk me out of it. It sends a bad message. I don’t like the elite of any organization behaving like that. Even the prophet or the clique that surrounds him who get special privileges.

We only pay the guy $400,000 a year, let him have the perks.

He’ll end up making millions on the book and lecture circuit. He should pay for personal trips or at least get the DNC to fund it.

I saw President Monson on TV at a few Jazz games this year. I’m sure that included not only the cost of very good seats but security as well. Should he not attend public events?

I’m not sure that it’s quite the same thing. IIRC, the seats were given to him, and the travel was what, 10 minutes?. The security detail for the prophet wouldn’t be any extra than it would be if he were visiting a stake, just like Obama’s security detail was probably the same to be in NY or in DC.

For me, it’s the cost of the trip that’s the issue with Obama. If Monson had attended a Jazz game on the road and used the Church to pay for it, then I might be a little more concerned.

Unlike in many democracies, the President of the United States is both the Head of State and Head of Government. It is important for a Head of State to be out and about, seen by the people, representing the country. It is good for the Head of State to visit lots of places, to be seen being pleasant and sociable. In a recession, it helps to have the Head of State seen out spending money and enjoying life. Fulfilling his role as Head of State helps in his role as Head of Government.

I guess he could have couched his trip to NY with some official meetings with the governor or the mayor and then “happened” to go to a show with his wife after, but it really doesn’t bother me that they shaved the pretense.

The plane was already paid for (it’s a military jet). The maintenance on the plane was going to be done anyway. The pilots are military officers who probably would have been flying practice flights if they weren’t flying an actual one. In the end, yes, we paid for the gas. But again, the military pilots need the practice anyway. It really is much ado about nothing.

The actual expenditures that the military spends in support of first familiy protection are classified anyway so we’ll never know the actual numbers.

Oh, and his secret service detail would have been guarding him regardless of whether he’s in NY or at the White House.

I am of the view that Obama a man who’s policies I vehemently disagree with can go on a date to NY with his wife.

I am not sure that the Obama’s have actually lived very high on the hog in the past.

There is not much to really criticize in Obama’s personal life. He is not William Jefferson Clinton.

Now the GM bailout is something else

I think it’s just being tone deaf. I don’t think there’s anything “inherently” wrong with any president taking moderate and modest travel as a family.

However, it does strike a harsh tone with the rest of us who are just trying to keep our heads above water (or are failing to do so) in this economy.

It’s just too high profile, too unnecessary, and contrasts too much with his strident message . . .

There’s are, as he is wont to say, extraordinary times where we balance on the precipice of a great depression . . . and he’s been calling on people to “make sacrifices”.

and yet, Broadway here we come.

It’s just completely tone deaf . . . based on what I’m hearing at the water cooler, it has struck a negative tone with his voters, too . . . so it’s not a partisan thing.

Wow, I am agreeing with bbell and Jota on the same post. This is fun. Sure it will not last, but I will enjoy it for now.

Everyone’s already hit the important notes, here: it costs the American taxpayer BANK for President Obama to breathe. Doesn’t matter where he is. This is a baseless attack to rile-up folks that are willing to not think it through … I drove five hours south of here last weekend for my birthday. No big deal … but if I were president, the costs associated with me being president would have made the trip “an extravagance”. Let the man be … we want the president out and about — we’ve all seen what having a president living in a bubble did for us.

Now, something that Drex said needs to be clarified: this recession — like most economic conditions — is a product of people perceptions. Yes, times are a little harder — but not much harder than where we should have been before the bankers and the home buyers up-and-wished a few trillion dollars into existence. Live within your means, sure … but holing up in your home like the end of the world is nigh is a self-fulfilling prophesy. Seeing the president out on the town with his wife is a good reminder of what we all oughta be doing a little more of.

I don’t know about you cheapskates, but I spend about $45,000 every time I take my wife out, so yeah, I think Obama’s a scumbag for not treating Michelle better.

“We don’t get out of a recession by sacrificing. We get out of a recession by spending, innovating, being optimistic, and living our lives”

For any business, individual, or organization with a heavy debt burden or a dramatic drop in revenues spending as if it was business as usual is positively suicidal.

A country can only do it if it prints money, which causes the value of the currency to fall, retirees (in particular) to suffer, and both inflation and interest rates to rise in due time. Back to the 70s (if not the Weimar Republic) is the name of the game.

Sbp: good point :)

Brian, Yeah pretty much. They have no more right to waste our money than anybody else. I think every president pulls tjis kind of crap (except maybe Jimmy Carter). Obama seems to be doing it on a grander scale.

Christopher: he owes taxpayers money…I’m a taxpayer.

This was extravagance pure and simple. I agree with everything Devyn, Drex and JA Benson said. It would be different if circumstances were different. But times being what they are, it’s not the right message for the president to send. It says “I’m better than you, I’m above the need to economize and your money means nothing to me.” I didn’t pay for the private jets the financiers used but there sure was a hoopla there. Same deal.

Jota, Chris H, it’s very simple. I am right. You are wrong.

Rusty, it’s a matter of economy. $2000 I can live with.

Silas, I disagree with you. It’s one thing to say “be of good cheer” and another to say “eat drink and be merry—oh and you pay for it”. It may be perception but the damage is done and this seems like a juggernaut.

Brian J call Bill and let’s do a double date. To the Bahamas.
Mark D that is too deep for me, but it sounds right.

Ed, see above, of course it’s not new. It’s the sheer insensitivity of his timing that boggles my mind. I thought he was more in tune with “the people” than that. I was rather spectacularly fooled by Bill Clinton. Geez. Here we go again.

I’m not sure any argument succeeds when it basically says “Hey, it’s not as bad as Dubya’s [policy|expenses|administration]“…

Yes, Anne. Think about it. All of those secret service agents would have been protecting him anyway. He has the same personal detail whether he’s traveling or at the White House.

If he has a police motorcade escort in New York, he would have had one in Washington DC.

His plane is a military plane. His pilots are military pilots. If they weren’t flying him, they would have been doing flight exercises. Those planes fly constantly for proficiency purposes.

Okay Jota good point.I’ll add it whenever I gripe about this situation in the future.

Rick, I feel that way about it, too. I think Washington plays awful fast and loose with “our” money. Of course that’s nothing new.

I wonder which president started that? Not Washington or Jefferson…but somebody way back had to figure out they had a good gig.

“Talk about a sense of entitlement.” –Peter LLC

Yes. Imagine, if you will, receiving something by paying for it with your money. Mind boggling.

That you see that the government has an entitlement to more of our hard earned money than we are ASKED to tithe is also telling. The sense of entitlement of our federal government is galatic in measure when compared to our own.

Have you read Common Sense by Thomas Paine?

never mind

Again, you don’t get far trying to justify Obama’s actions in terms of Bush. It’s entirely possible *both* are wrong and it’s perfectly OK to criticize Obamessiah.

Have you read Common Sense by Thomas Paine?

Yes; are you referring to its characterization of the government as a necessary evil?

Anyway, as taxpayers, I guess we all have a stake in every bridge, armored vehicle, presidential pen holder and paper towel for the DMV bathroom purchased with our money, however infinitesimally small that contribution may be, so why not demand full shareholder participation rights in every government venture?

Go for it Mr. Taxpayer. GM per share is now worth 87 cents . Many banks are now are working deligently to pay back TARP funds to the US Treasurey. Injecting such funds and earlier funds into the financial system probably prevented an international economic melt down and hence an economic depression. Indeed this is ‘Common Sense’.

Obama over seas travel is conducting excellent public relations for the US. Finality we are leaving the arrogant previous administration atttude of ‘either you are for us or against us’ while working with our European national partners. Multilateralism works.

Peter and Tippetts,

The government already has a built in way of dealing with poorly run companies. There is no such thing as a company to important to let fail. Failure is how you learn and grow. Henry Ford didn’t make it his first time out with the assembly line. He didn’t even make it the second time. It is now the standard manufacturing mode. He found a way to make it work and didn’t have the government bail him out only to become a government entity. GM, Chrysler, and/or Ford now should have been left to the bankruptcy courts and Chapter 11. They have now essentially been taken over by the federal government and you LIKE the idea of economic fascism? Sorry if freedom appeals more to me than slavery to the government.

Several things come to mind. “Boy President”, “Welcome Back Carter”, “President Silky”.

His speeches on this trip really underscore something: he doesn’t have the gravitas to be a head of state.

His weakness and light-weightness are going to encourage those who mean the US harm.

I guess every generation needs a Jimmy Carter to remind them why wimps and liberals don’t belong on the international stage.

President Obama is no Jimmy Carter. Upscaling our presence in Afghanistan is an example or launching air strikes in Pakistan while taking out those mean terrorist; putting pressure on Pakistan Army to wipe out the Taliban;increasing our defense budget by 4%. Bookslinger you see things through ultra conservative paradigms. No real analysis but expousing emotional biases.

He’s also made it very clear that he can finish a sentence without 6-12 “ums” and “ers” without the teleprompter. He’s not the smooth talker everyone seems to think.

First of all, I made the comment about it being a disaster and it fits. Secondly, I don’t listen to Hannity or Rush, nor do I watch FoxNews so your premise that I get my marching orders from them is shot full of holes.

We are already in the financial crisis because Washington DC refuses to stop the spending and the administration seems to think the budget is an open-ended thing. The federal government should not be handing out money to every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a cause. That is not what the federal government was ever meant to be for.

If you want to really boost the economy, declare a six month tax free holiday. It would have cost less than what Obama has done.