Reporter to Gibbs: Um, why do taxpayers have to pay for Obama date night?
posted at 8:25 pm on June 1, 2009 by Allahpundit
Because shut up, that’s why. Gibbs happily ducks the question of cost — it was at least $24,000, which admittedly is just one grain of sand in the vast desert of Hopenchange spending — but see the second clip below for a more spirited defense from Captain Legthrill. As usual, he’s wrong. No one begrudges The One his right to conduct presidential business from Camp David or Chicago or wherever he pleases. What grates is the needless expense for pure recreation in another city when D.C. would have done just as well. A venial sin, to be sure, but a sin nonetheless given how the media would have demagogued the hell out of Bush for behaving similarly. If you want conservatives to lighten up, address your double standards first.
Oh, also, you’ll be pleased to know that one of America’s richest men has decided the annual presidential salary of $400,000 per year isn’t “much.”
Update: The Daily Mail estimates total cost to be $73,000.
“He better have liked the play,” one angry passenger supposedly said about Obama. When the ferry passed Pier 11 and people caught a glimpse of one of the presidential helicopters, another traveler was overheard saying, “There’s your tax dollars at work!”
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Subsunk at 10:09
Well stated. I only hope they get theirs before America is totally destroyed.
justincase on June 1, 2009 at 10:20 PM
The next time Barack “Fly a jet to a waiting motorcade for date night in NYC” Obama lectures me about my thermostat usage, the danger it’s doing to the planet, and how much the world hates be because of it, I’m gonna put my carbon footprint up his ass.
Bruce in NH on June 1, 2009 at 10:23 PM
I don’t mind the president taking his wife to Broadway. He actually didn’t. The taxpayers took them to Broadway.
Oleta on June 1, 2009 at 10:28 PM
Always remember this about liberals/marxists/democrats:
They will never pass up an opportunity to spend someone else’s money and will go out of their way to never spend their own money.
The ultimate cheapskates.
Bubba Redneck on June 1, 2009 at 10:29 PM
Like Cholly Rangel thinking his constituents expect him to have a fine Cadillac, like the black Baptist preacher taking the offering plate to buy a gold Rolex and a $5000 suit… Obama thinks he’s earned this and his people expect him to live it up large.
Obama thinks ‘public servant’ refers to the taxpayer that pays for his excesses.
rockbend on June 1, 2009 at 10:36 PM
Enjoyed reading your response. I pray you are right. Great website, by the way. I don’t know anyone in the military and I liked reading the troop updates. I bookmarked it.
sherry on June 1, 2009 at 10:37 PM
Leftists like Matthews really can’t process the hypocrisy after 8 years of whining about Bush going to Crawford or fundraisers.
Speedwagon82 on June 1, 2009 at 10:40 PM
uh I heard 400 policeman, closing of the FDR (with people cheering gag) I think much more. This is so past ridiculous.
Let’s not mention AF1 and the helicopters. Joy riding in high style while I mourn GM.
Righteous.
seesalrun on June 1, 2009 at 10:46 PM
I don’t think anyone here has drawn the obvious conclusion yet…the taxpayers took the Obamas to Broadway, and in the process, the taxpayers got taken to the cleaners.
gryphon202 on June 1, 2009 at 10:46 PM
You Vill Not Qvestion Der OberFuher Schwinhunt!!!
It is amazing that Ozero gets such a free pass. I remember back when gore was vp and someone mentioned “he is really for the environment”. That was the same time he took three jets down to the keys for a vacation fling. My question was “Just how much fuel do you thing THREE jets burned on owlgores little trip. Just how much is he for th evirorment. ??”
Anyway, we seem to be getting to the “let them eat cake” scenario but we are darn close to it. I would think that using taxpayer resources for a private trip would be illegal. I know that when I worked for the government, if I had taken a trip on the government’s money for private use, I would be in jail for a decade or so. Heck, we even had to turn in our frequent flyer miles and sleep in the cheapest fleabag hotels (the daily allowances were pathetic)
OTOH, why would da one be held accountable for anything. He’s gotten away with
- The obama rezko land deal
- Acorn vote stealing
- Illegal campaign contributions
- not releasing any info (I know I won’t mention the birth cert)
- Possibly being involved in a senate seat for sale or rent
- Squashing the case against blatant voter intimidation in Philadlelphia
Welcome to the thugocracy folks… It isn’t going to get any better any time soon.
bullseye on June 1, 2009 at 10:48 PM
“I like having a president who takes his wife up to Broadway.”
Fish in a barrel.
Kevin from Ohio in V on June 1, 2009 at 10:59 PM
Just a few additions to your excellent list, bullseye:
- Missouri law enforcement “Truth Squads”
- telling AIG execs that he’s the only thing standing between them and the pitchforks
- throwing bankruptcy contract law out the window to pay off his union thugs
- lying about being a member of The New Party
- lying about his close connections with Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn
- forgery
- using federal earmarks to give his wife a $250,000 raise
- insisting the Spendulus be printed in the wee hours of the morning and voted on that same day
I’m sure I missed a lot, but it’s a start.
justincase on June 1, 2009 at 11:04 PM
Also, justincase, when the urgent Spendulus was approved, the bill waited the long week end for 0 to return from taking Mrs. 0 to Chicago on Air Force One for a Valentine’s date.
Oleta on June 1, 2009 at 11:07 PM
You know, bullseye, we really need to keep a running list of this stuff. Others have mentioned that Obama keeps doing something even worse to make us forget what he just did that was bad. After a while there’s so much that you can’t remember any of it. We need to document these individual items so that we can show a huge collage of the overall picture that people might otherwise fail to see.
Stuff like
bowing to the Saudi king
telling Gordon Brown not to come to Washington DC because they had snow
Giving Gordon Brown DVD’s he can’t even watch in Britain
Hugging Hugo Chavez
His “apology tour”
Putting NYC in a panic over (supposedly) a photo op for Air Force One (and getting a lousy photo out of it to boot)
His inability to find any friends to nominate who weren’t guilty of crimes, resulting in (for instance) a Treasury Sec who is a tax cheat
Etc.
justincase on June 1, 2009 at 11:11 PM
the cost of this goes far beyond the tens of thousands of dollars for the aircraft and security, etc. As others have noted above, you have the massive traffic jams that are caused anytime the President is in NYC, plus the cost to the businesses resulting from sidewalk closures, security zones, etc. On a Saturday night, too! That’s a lot of empty restaurant tables, etc.
I get so pissed off by the Won’s contempt for my city; the flyover with his plane for a ‘photo op’ and now this. Contrast it with my biggest memories of how Bush interacted with this city: the first being him standing on the smoking pile that was the WTC with a bullhorn and reassuring America that we would take the fight to the terrorists, and the second being his first pitch of the 2001 World Series at Yankee Stadium. Even if the rest of New York has forgotten those moments, I haven’t; I will always remember Bush as a man who loved his country and loved New York City when we needed it the most.
Ogabe on the other hand can go boil his head for all I care. No class. No respect.
Fallen Sparrow on June 1, 2009 at 11:17 PM
isnt this the same clown that gets a tingle up his leg when he hears obama speak?
Locrian on June 1, 2009 at 11:17 PM
Yeah, Oleta, I was thinking of that when I typed it but alas – I had to move on quickly before I forgot any of the other crap he’s done. lol.
That should have been an omen – when he forced Congress to vote on a bill they had no hope of even glancing at, only to leave it sitting there while he went off on his own personal fun – while the nation was in such dire straits that we would absolutely die and go to hell if the thing wasn’t passed YESTERDAY.
I hope the whole country knows how Hillary and Palin felt when this guy flipped the bird at them because he’s rubbing our noses where the sun don’t shine.]
Oh – and then, when people found out what Obama’s people hid in the bill they purposely kept anybody from seeing, Obama acted shocked and righteously indignant and Congress eventually passed a 100% tax on the bonuses that Geithner gave them.
Lesson we were supposed to learn from that fiasco: The Lord Obama giveth and the Lord Obama taketh away.
justincase on June 1, 2009 at 11:18 PM
Eat The Rich
Artist: Krokus
I’ve been down, I’ve been beat
I’ve been tossed into the street
Beggin’ nickels, beggin’ dimes
Just to get my bottle of wine
Some say life she’s a lady
Kinda soft, kinda shady
I can tell you life is rich
She’s no lady, she’s a bitch
They suck my body out
But friend there is no doubt
I’m gonna pay the devil his dues
Cause I’m so sick of being abused
Eat the rich, eat the rich
Don’t you know life is a bitch
Eat the rich, eat the rich
Out of the palace and into the ditch
Steal my money, steal my car
Took my woman and my old guitar
Runnin’ crazy, runnin’ wild
Blind alley in my mind
Just can’t fight the temptation
It’s become my inspiration
Gonna get myself an axe
Break some heads & break some backs
/lyrics make no sense, I know
Ugly on June 1, 2009 at 11:18 PM
Well said, Fallen Sparrow. I can’t believe the way Obama has treated NYC now that he got what he wanted from her.
justincase on June 1, 2009 at 11:25 PM
It disgusts me to say it but I have to agree with Chrissy on one point.
Is this the best Steele can do? Enough of the BS schoolyard tactics, Mr. Chairman. Do something substantive, fer cryin’ out loud!
ItsForTheChildren on June 1, 2009 at 11:36 PM
Yes, we need to keep a running list and a running tab showing how much Obama is stealing from the taxpayers.
In time, Obama should be presented with a bill demanding reimbursement. When the deadbeat doesn’t pay, then we should attach all of his assets, and the assets of any trustswhere he is the trustee or “corporations” with which he is affiliated. Thus, Obama is called to make an appropriate sacrifice, just as he expects the rest of us to “sacrifice” our rights and wellbeing for his personal political benefit.
BottomLine5 on June 1, 2009 at 11:43 PM
While we’re doing the math, what’s the bottom line on his carbon footprint for The One’s jet-setting date of fashionable excess? Be sure to include all the pollutants spewing from all that snarled traffic caused by his “New York peasants, stand aside for mein “Uberman mit Entourage Cruise-By”. And not so much as a teasing greenik tsk-tsk from Thriller? What’s that voodoo economics the Climate Changers like to use to “curtail” Climate Crime? Cap’n'Trade?
Time to cap His Holiness, and trade Him.
orville on June 1, 2009 at 11:44 PM
We’ll be able to pay this datenight off by just properly inflating our tires.
jdpaz on June 1, 2009 at 11:45 PM
+1
Bubba Redneck on June 1, 2009 at 11:48 PM
seesalrun on June 1, 2009 at 11:54 PM
What reporter had the balls to ask this?
RightWinged on June 1, 2009 at 11:57 PM
Yeah, this little jaunt cost about as much as that wardrobe they’re still b*tching and moaning about.
ddrintn on June 2, 2009 at 12:22 AM
LOL!!
Susanboo on June 2, 2009 at 12:38 AM
Oh, geez, seesalrun, that brings up a whole nother set of things I forgot: threatening to prosecute Bush lawyers for giving honest counsel on EIT, releasing information that puts interrogators at risk and tells our enemies how to work our system, etc.
I want to believe that there are people within the system who can and will do what needs to be done for this country, whatever the cost. Our military men and women are by far the people I most respect in this nation. I’m humbled and awed by the stories of their sacrifices and the backbone they show in the middle of a thankless job even while seemingly being pissed on by their CIC and the very imbeciles they risk life, limb, and reputation to protect. They (you) are what keep me from giving up. We don’t deserve you, but I’ll do anything in my power to “take up the quarrel with the foe” (ala Flanders Fields)to honor the sacrifices and to stand next to you in the fight.
But after what happened with the Haditha Marines and seeing the power of Murtha’s purse-strings and the unwillingness (or inability) of anyone in this nation to hold him accountable for his slander of our nation’s finest – and the willingness of an ex-Marine to leave our fighting men and women to wonder if they will be charged with murder if they kill rather than be killed in a split-second decision… I’m losing any hope for the system to allow good, honest patriots to do what needs to be done.
A few months ago an FBI agent told me a blatant lie 3 times rather than give me an earnest hearing. I’d like it if those folks – and the CIA folks – would be jolted into due diligence. I’m sure some of them put the country above politics. But what I’ve seen hasn’t inspired confidence in ANY part of our system. It’s all corrupt. I don’t know how the good can overcome a system wired to reward corruption.
If it can be done, we’ll do it. Together. We have to. It helps to come here and know I’m not totally alone.
justincase on June 2, 2009 at 12:48 AM
“They live…we sleep.”
Dr. ZhivBlago on June 2, 2009 at 12:57 AM
<blockquoteBama runs off to NY because his cutie wants her promise fulfilled.
So, we are to believe that the reason he did this is that he promised Weezie he would take her to a NY play if he won. And he didn’t want Weezie kicking his ass or closing up shop for a while.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but this doofus “won” last November, right? What prevented him from fulfilling that promise sometime between Nov and Jan 20th. Where these guys so destitute they couldn’t afford it? Or are we to believe he was much more busy serving in “The Office of President-Elect”than he is serving as President.
If his reason is true, one must conclude he wanted to deliberatly stick it to the taxpayers to keep Weezie happy.
Fed45 on June 2, 2009 at 1:13 AM
Live’n it up while we have 10% unemployment. Before long they won’t have hardly a dime in tax money to spend…
jbh45 on June 2, 2009 at 8:11 AM
MSNBC, Chris Matthews and Olbermann, have a script for all events.
When a Republican does something, they state all the negatives and hate filled reasons the Republican shouldn’t have done it.
When a Democrat does something, it’s cute, popular, sophisticated, “just what the American people want” and of course they know exactly what we want….right.
The two faces of MSNBC.
afotia on June 2, 2009 at 8:29 AM
Going to a Broadway show is now the height of intellectual activity. Who knew that Rent and Urine Town were on a par with Sophocles and Shakespeare. Thanks, Matthews, for clearing that up. Good to know your tingling thigh isn’t drawing too much blood from the brain.
EMD on June 2, 2009 at 8:41 AM
How much were the carbon credits we bought for this little trip?
moonsbreath on June 2, 2009 at 9:19 AM
Who wants to bet me that Chrissy’s favorite show was The Full Monty?
ladyingray on June 2, 2009 at 9:52 AM
At this point, you’re really down to just two views of Obama, rather than the myriad “He’s an unknown; he’s so complex” BS:
- He’s an idiot, or
- He’s smart enough to know that he controls the press, the Democrats, and the unions completely, and absolutely nothing that can change elections is outside of his control for the foreseeable future, and he is small enough, partisan enough, and vindictive enough to have a really good time of it while he can.
Jaibones on June 2, 2009 at 10:01 AM
More blatant proof the Democrats and their liberal friends are hypocrites and should be ignored and written off as totally whacked out juveniles that want to live extravagant life styles off the responsible tax payers of this nation.
Pretty much like teenagers stuck in puberty that won’t get a job and move out on their own.
Cybergeezer on June 2, 2009 at 11:16 AM
Geez, Chris, when you put it that way how can I feel any differently?
thegreatbeast on June 2, 2009 at 11:21 AM
I think what I find most reprehensible about this is, 600,000 jobs being lost each month. Dealers having their contracts voided, and told to close their doors, for no explicable reason. The fact that Obama knew before Monday, more job losses , and plant closings, and even more job losses, when the GM bankruptcy trickles down. Knowing all this, and then being so flippant, as to charge tax payers money, because Michelle was promised a broadway show?
Then Monday, telling people they’re making sacrifices, for future generations. What a bunch of hooey. When do he, and Michelle make sacrifices? We put the food on their table. Who’s going to do that, for all those unemployed sacrificial lambs out there?
I won’t begrudge them some down time, to just be a married couple out together, but perhaps it might be better, to be a tad more discretionary, and frugal about it.
capejasmine on June 2, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Gibbs is *unbelievably* incompetent. How bizarre that our Exalted Messiah has such a dolt for a spokeshole.
infidel4life on June 2, 2009 at 11:45 AM
This is fairly typical of communist leaders. The people need to sacrifice and do without, their wealth equalized amongst themselves. But I get to live in a palace feasting on wagyu steaks and aragula.
Crusty on June 2, 2009 at 11:54 AM
Yes, you lowly peasants…. a king can go anywhere he desires among his kingdom.
Are we not beginning to live the life of “Animal Farm”?
CynicalOptimist on June 2, 2009 at 12:52 PM
Send Krissie the bill. She is all for it!
TexAz on June 2, 2009 at 1:07 PM
I’ll be able to stomach Zero’s exhortation to “sacrifice” as soon as he starts sacrificing. At least Jimmah had the decency to wear a sweater.
spmat on June 2, 2009 at 1:59 PM
I don’t have a huge problem with him taking his wife to NYC for dinner and a play. I even understand the need to take security precautions, having the Secret Service accompany them, etc. I can even go so far as to be sympathetic to the whole shutting down traffic thing (although it was certainly insensitive to everyone else trying to have a “date night” with their spouses in NYC that night!)
What I cannot understand, and what I cannot fathom or accept about this whole night is the fact that, the reason he needed three planes (Carbon footprint anyone?!) wasn’t for security, etc. it was so he could have THE PRESS ACCOMPANY HIM AND REPORT ON HIS “DATE NIGHT”!!
That is absolutely outrageous. It wasn’t good enough to have his “people” inform all the New York-based reporters and press about this and allow them to “report” on this happening? No, they had to take DC-based reporters along with them to do it true justice!
That is what every single American should be outraged about. This is something that not even the libs can honestly defend or deflect.
The display of absolute elitism is beyond breathtaking.
Let them eat cake, indeed!
Fatal on June 2, 2009 at 2:15 PM
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