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Presidential Fundraising Trips Leave Taxpayers With Hefty Tab

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by OddsOn, May 28, 2009.

  1. OddsOn

    OddsOn Member

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    More abuse of power by our politicians. This is not posted as a direct shot at Obama but rather a reminder that the system and our politicians is out of control.

    Presidential Fundraising Trips Leave Taxpayers With Hefty Tab

    By Judson Berger
    FOXNews.com
    Wednesday, May 27, 2009

    President Obama left Tuesday for a two-day fundraising tour in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The Democratic National Committee is expected to pick up part of the cost, but if history is any gauge, taxpayers will pick up most of the tab.

    President Obama has the star power to raise millions of dollars for the candidates and organizations he graces with his stump speech.

    But when the president hit the road Tuesday for a two-day fundraising tour to pack the party coffers, he also was racking up a $265,000 partisan bill for just one leg of the trip, according to a watchdog group -- part of which taxpayers, regardless of party affiliation, will have to pay.

    Obama started out in Las Vegas, where he stumped that night for state Democrats and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. On Wednesday night he was to attend a two-tiered donor dinner for the Democratic Party in Los Angeles.

    But sandwiched between political appearances, Obama squeezed in some quick public remarks on energy, ironically before burning fuel to Los Angeles, at Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base. It was a key stop, because it gives the entire trip an air of official legitimacy and allows the White House to write off part of the trip under rules governing travel, said Pete Sepp, vice president for policy and communications at the National Taxpayers Union.

    "You've got to have some official (business) in the trip somewhere. It becomes almost a game to find some official function to hang the trip on," Sepp said.

    The rest, though, is all politics. And, if history is any gauge, the American taxpayer will pick up a large portion of the tab.

    Sepp estimated that the purely political part of the trip -- the distance from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and back, with no public events -- would cost at least $265,000, just for air travel expenses.

    He said the minimum domestic travel package for the president consists of one Boeing 747, which serves as Air Force One, one back-up dummy plane and one C17 cargo plane. The cost estimate is based on past hourly operational costs for the three aircraft, adjusted for inflation.

    White House travel rules, which were developed under the Reagan administration, state that the Air Force pays all costs for the use of the aircraft, but that the government must be reimbursed for airfare, food, lodging and other expenses incurred during whatever portion of the trip is political.

    White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said the Democratic National Committee is paying its share for this trip.

    "The DNC is paying 100 percent of the legally mandated costs for the trip from Nevada to California, and we are complying fully with all legal requirements," Vietor wrote in an e-mail to FOXNews.com.

    But reimbursement for political activities involves a tricky formula, and actual reimbursements typically come nowhere close to compensating the government for the cost of such trips. Secret Service costs, for one, are always footed by the government.

    A 2006 report for the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that during 2002, political campaigns reimbursed the federal government for $198,000 of the $6.5 million in flight expenses racked up by campaign-related stops made by President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. That's 3 percent of the total cost.

    Taxpayers paid the remaining $6.3 million.

    "The president and vice president can legally participate in campaign and fundraising events for candidates," the report said. "But when they do so, the taxpayer bears most of the cost."

    That Obama is raising funds while in office is hardly unusual. Both Bush and Bill Clinton made similar political trips in their presidencies.

    Watchdog groups don't suggest that the president shouldn't travel, or even that the president should not travel to political events. Rather, they say the White House should be more forthcoming with its travel expenses and details and establish a more equitable reimbursement program.

    "You can't keep the president from traveling. That's what he does. ... No one would suggest he not travel," said Leslie Paige, media director for Citizens Against Government Waste. "What is most important for taxpayers is how much is it costing for this stuff."

    "Having more realistic reimbursement rules for political legs of these trips would be quite helpful," Sepp said.

    Paige said more transparency is needed, noting it's "very hard" to pry the full costs of these trips from any administration.

    The DNC did not respond to a request for comment; Sepp said any DNC reimbursement for Obama's trip this week would be minimal.
     
  2. bigtexxx

    bigtexxx Member

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    Tax payers picking up the tab for Barack to hit up Vegas and LA. :rolleyes: The guy has a complete God complex. Give me a break.
     
  3. B-Bob

    B-Bob "94-year-old self-described dreamer"
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    Quiz time! What other presidents have dared make fundraising stops while in office? The answer might surprise you! (But only if you've been in suspended animation since about 1970.)
     
  4. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    you didn't even read the article did you.

    i'd love to hear your outrage at $6.3 million picked up by taxpayers for cheney/bush campaign stops. please have that outrage posted within the hour. tia!
     
  5. KingCheetah

    KingCheetah Atomic Playboy
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    Glad they didn't go with the Hefty Drawstrings.

    $$$
     
  6. mc mark

    mc mark Member

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    [edit]

    I see the obvious has been pointed out before me.
     
  7. vlaurelio

    vlaurelio Member

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    wonder why fauxnews didn't report this back then?
     
  8. OddsOn

    OddsOn Member

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    Yup but that doesn't make it right now does it?

    Or CNN or MSNBC or any other "news" agency for that matter.
     
  9. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    still waiting. :rolleyes:
     
  10. juicystream

    juicystream Member

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    At least they reported the Bush Excursions in this article.
     
  11. Rocketman95

    Rocketman95 Hangout Boy

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    yeah, it took obama doing it for them to even bring it up.
     
  12. Red Chocolate

    Red Chocolate Member

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    If true, just another example of how blatantly obvious it is that the government is run by criminals and crooks.
     
  13. DonnyMost

    DonnyMost Member
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    Wow, they seriously reported that the taxpayers took it in the butt by Obama BEFORE the bill is even in yet? What the hell kind of journalism is that? Wait til the bomb goes off before you report there's been an explosion... :rolleyes:
     
  14. yaoluv

    yaoluv Member

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    All presidents do this.

    On a related topic it always cracks me up how republicans complain about the costs of the most insignifigant things like volcano research or presidential trips.

    The prices on these things are so small they wouldn't even show up in a budget. This presidential trip by Obama costs you a fraction of a penny in tax dollars. We are spending more than this trip every half a minute we are in Iraq. WAKE UP!
     
  15. DonnyMost

    DonnyMost Member
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    What a phony!!

    How dare he not go by wagon and foot on this tour!!

    Hypocrite!!
     
  16. glynch

    glynch Member

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    Another example of hypocrisy. The conservative movement has faught continually to keep a system in which politicians are beholden to the contributions of rich individuals, which they dominate. Every attempt at campaign finance has been opposed by them.

    Another example of the bankurpty of the conservatives. They can only attack Obama from the pseudo left. Nobody want to hear about the evils of big government, the benefits of more tax breaks for the wealthy that tricle down supposedly to ordinary people, the benefits of deregulation of the financial system and other conservative themes.
     

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