Let's Go To Spain!

Our economy is stumbling. Unemployment levels are up. Our leaders continue to spend money we don't have. Participation in food stamps has set records for 18 months straight. The oil spill has cost thousands of jobs. Citizens are struggling to pay their bills and keep their homes - which they can't even sell. Folks can't afford vacations. So what do you do if you are president? I guess you take advantage of your perks and let your wife and children take expensive vacations. You let her go to New York in March; Chicago, over Memorial Day; Los Angeles in June; Camp David in July; Maine in July, to highlight Acadia National Park; Spain, Florida, and Martha's Vineyard in August. Not too bad a life! Forget closer, less expensive trips like Mt. Vernon, Inner Harbor, Annapolis, the Chesapeake Bay, or even Ocean City. Let those for the poorer folks who must pay your way. And certainly, one should go to Spain and help their economy by spending multi-thousands there instead of in the United States And why not highlight the beauty of Spain's Mediterranean beaches when our Gulf Coast areas are impacted by the oil spill and their tourism is suffering badly. Of course, we are told, Mrs. Obama pays her personal costs, as do her friends who flew there on their own. But taxpayers pick up a big chunk of the tab. According to CBS News, the tax dollar part of the vacation includes an estimated $146,000 round trip cost for the United States Air Force 757 aircraft, not counting ground time; about $95,000 in hotel costs for an estimated 70 security (Secret Service and military) who get a $273 per day government per diem, plus costs for the dozen or so cars in her motorcade. Three shifts of agents are needed for a trip of this magnitude. As I recall, wasn't sacrifice a key theme in President Obama's inaugural address to the nation? Of course, the sacrifices were to be made by us. While most of us are now pinching pennies, the Obamas don't seem to be heeding their own advice. It seems to me that the extravagance of Mama Obama's trip, compared to her husband's demonization of the rich, is just plain hypocrisy at its worst. The New York Daily News recently headlined, "Material girl Michelle Obama is a modern-day Marie Antoinette on a glitzy Spanish vacation." Maybe this is just another "let them eat cake" moment.