Judicial Watch: President’s spring golf outings a bit pricey
Twitter is full of talk about burn rates and such today as presidential candidates release the results of their fundraising efforts.Socialist Bernie Sanders has taken in a huge amount of money, but it’s a necessary evil so he can pursue his dream of turning America into anotherDenmark, Sweden orNorway.
For the winner, it’s all worth it in the end as you never have to think about burn rates again. Author Brad Thor thought President Obama’s expenditureson golf and fundraising this spring were better reported with an exclamation point.
That figure comes from documents obtained from theU.S. Department of the Air Force by Judicial Watch. The numbers are for February and March only and do not include the cost of security, as the Secret Service has not yet responded to FOIA requests by Judicial Watch. We’ve lost track of how many rounds of golf the president has played, but we know his outing with Bill Clinton on Martha’s Vineyard in August was No. 246.
Judicial Watch breaks down the numbers by trip:
- Obamas February 14, 2015, golf outing to Palm Springs required a five-hour flight, costing taxpayers a total of $1,031,685.
- Transportation for Obamas February 19 day trip to Chicago cost taxpayers $619,011.00.
- Transportation for Obamas March 2015 fundraising trip to Los Angeles cost taxpayers $1,980,835.20.
- Obamas March 28, 2015, golf outing to Palm city required a 3.9-hour flight, costing taxpayers $804,870.30.
Not surprisingly, the golf outingsare almost always tacked on to fundraising trips.
Judicial Watch notes that the Obamas’largest travel expenditure so far has beenthe family’s $15.8 million flight to Africa and Honolulu, followed by “Michelle Obamas side-trip to Dublin, Ireland, during the 2013 G-8 conference in Belfast, when she and her entourage booked 30 rooms at the five-star Shelbourne Hotel, with the first lady staying in the 1500 square-foot Princess Grace suite at a cost of $3,500 a night. The total cost to taxpayers for the Obamas Ireland trip was $7,921,638.66.”
