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Obamas’ $1 Million “Date Night” to NYC, May 30, 2009

During a week when GM filed for bankruptcy after firing thousands of autoworkers, President Barack Obama took the First Lady on a “date night” to New York City for dinner and a Broadway show.

The Republican National Committee said, “Have a great Saturday evening – even if you’re not jetting off somewhere at taxpayer expense.”

As noted in the new book, The 1.4 Billion Dollar Man, while the president paid for the dinner tab and movie ticket, the total tab for the evening was a bit higher – at least for the US taxpayers:

Some people drive to New York; some fly and take a taxi. On this private trip the Obamas took one of the smaller planes from the presidential fleet. The press and staff followed in two other planes. After landing at JFK in New York, Marine One flew them over the Brooklyn Bridge to lower Manhattan, where their motorcade began. Nice way to have a date if you can get others to pay for it all!
The trip involved:
– 2 C-17s flying three missions
– 3 Lear jets
– 5 helicopters
– 1 Presidential motorcade
Officially, there were 44 US Marines and more than 20 Secret Service personnel involved, but, as usual, this dramatically underestimates the government paid manpower. There are of course pilots and flight crews for all the helicopters and planes, and chauffeurs for all the cars in the motorcade. An advance team, often more than one, goes before the president on all of his trips…
Taking into account the advance team, flight crews, Secret Service, White House planning, and others, there were probably about 150 federal government employees involved in this trip, not counting local New York City police, although it’s quite possible there were more. While the president paid for dinner and the show, the total taxpayer cost of date night would have been well in excess of $1 million.

For more details on the $20 million that taxpayers fork over each year for the Obama family’s various vacations, download The 1.4 Billion Dollar Man today!

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