Thursday, June 4, 2009

Question of the week: Barack and Michelle Obama's NYC trip. How much did it cost the US public?



Don't hold your breath for an answer. In a time where automakers are 
filing for bankruptcy, Obama himself has not minced words with the 
big three taking their corporate jets to Congress to plead their cases 
for bailout funds. One would think that the President would be a little more sensitive when traveling himself. I understand that he promised his wife a night out on the town. And after such a campaign I not only find that romantic, heck I'd buy the tickets for them myself.  But what does bother me is the double tongue mentality that seems to be
becoming more and more prevalent.

When asked about the costs Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest responded that he "didn't anticipate being able to provide a cost estimate tonight."  What are you talking about?  You mean nobody has a way of telling just how much this night was going to cost before it was planned? Yeah right and I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn!

And this my friends is what I'm talking about.  It's one thing to talk the talk but it's another to walk the walk.  For one to call for transparency in government spending and then not even have an answer for this example of misappropriation of funds.  And when asked what this has costs the public, the best the deputy press secretary can say is that they don't know.  Which indeed sounds funny to me since I have to know exactly just how much I'm going to be spending on a family vacation and budget accordingly.  But then again I guess the old rule book would go out the window say if I had at my disposal the US Treasury!

Do I like the job that President Obama is doing?  Well he's been doing rather well in his first months as President but he needs to not forget that we are all making sacrifices during these hard economic times.   Just as he would expect the Big Three, Wall Street, and other companies throughout the US and it's citizens to make sacrifices in spending so too should he.  If you want to truly inspire people you need to keep your word.  Now that would be true "change".


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