By Susan Duclos
While Barack Obama and his administration is forcing agency heads to to implement reductions to increased spending in the most damaging way possible and threatening to cancel White House tours, the Easter Egg hunt at the White House, military benefits, etc..... his daughters are once again on another taxpayer funded vacation in the Bahama's at the "Atlantis" resort.
Unfortunately, until an organization such as Judicial Watch, files Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits, we won't know exactly how much this latest trip for the first daughters will end up costing taxpayers, many of which haven't been able to afford a vacation for themselves since Obama took office in January 2009.
Barack Obama makes a point, and is on video multiple times, talking about "shared sacrifice," yet his family vacations, his wife's and his daughters, have totaled millions if not billions of dollars, which taxpayers have funded over the last four years.
The first family's Hawaii vacations alone, from 2009-2012, have topped $20 million, according to The Hawaii Reporter. This excludes the other vacations taken by the whole family, or individual members such as Sasha's spring break vacation in 2012 where 25 Secret Services agents accompanied her.
As of February 2012, there were 16 documented first family vacations, all funded by American taxpayers:
The Obama Vacation List
-- (Up to February 2012)
--President’s Day 2012, Michelle and the first daughters in Aspen, Colorado to ski.
-- Christmas 2011, the first family in Hawaii for an extended vacation.
-- Summer 2011, in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., for the annual beach break.
-- June 2011, the first lady, her mother and daughters traveled to South Africa and Botswana.
-- President’s Day 2011, the first lady and first daughters travel to Vail to ski.
-- Christmas 2010, in Hawaii.
-- August 2010, the first family traveled to Panama City Beach, Fla., for some sun and fun at the beach.
-- August 2010, Obama spent the weekend alone in Chicago for his 49th birthday bash.
-- August 2010, the first lady and daughter Sasha traveled to Spain for a mother-daughter vacation.
-- August 2010, summer vacation again at Martha’s Vineyard.
-- July 2010, the first family went to Mount Desert Island, Maine.
-- May 2010, the first family had a four-day trip to Chicago.
-- March 2010, first lady and daughter spend Spring Break in New York City.
-- Christmas 2009, Hawaii again for the annual break.
-- August 2009, at Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Canyon for a short vacation.
-- August 2009, their first summer vacation as first family at Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
March 2012- March 2012: Malia Obama’s Spring Break vacation to Mexico with 25 U.S. Secret Service Agents and 12 of her friends.
Nothing has changed in 2013 for the Obama family.
Despite Obama's claiming "pain" over the sequestration, Obama still had time for a holiday, separate from Michelle's, in Florida, playing golf with Tiger woods. Ski trips for Michelle Obama and her daughters again, in February 2013, just two months after their last $4 million Hawaii vacation.
None of this includes the money spent on first family concerts, special event clothing, etc......
There is more but the point has been made.
Every president's vacations and family vacations are funded by the taxpayers, but one would think that a president during a recession and a recovery that is officially the worst recovery in U.S. history, one who constantly talks about "shared sacrifice," would attempt to limit the taxpayer funded lavish, first family vacations, to show that they too are having to "sacrifice."
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