Last week, I wondered if perhaps the Obama administration would consider factor the optics of the decision to cancel White House tours for the public into their upcoming decisions about the executives’ leisure activities, and whether they’d tone them down a little due to the extra security and funds that they require.

Evidently not.

Not only do they have every intention of going forward with forward with their Martha’s Vineyard vacation this summer nor any plans for curbing Obama’s golf outings, the First Lady is getting ready to throw herself the most amazing 50th birthday bash, evah. I wonder how much extra all of these “everyman” leisure activities are going to incur in security costs? HuffPo reports:

An unnamed (and potentially questionable) source told the UK’s Daily Mail that the first lady has asked Beyonce and Adele to perform at her party.

“America’s first lady will be holding a huge celebrity-packed party for her birthday at the White House next year and, as she adores Adele and Beyonce, she has asked them both to sing,” an unnamed source told The Daily Mail. “Adele has graciously accepted and waived her usual fee for the high-profile private performance. She will sing a selection of her most-loved hits for the first lady and her friends.”

You might be tempted to think that, with all they pain they’ve said these cuts are going to incur, and what with the ongoing economic “recovery” and the outsized number of Americans who still can’t find jobs, they’d make some effort to trim down displays of opulence as, at the very least, a smart PR move — but you would be wrong. And why should they, really? Nobody cares. They do what they want. And isn’t Michelle Obama just the coolest? She’s BFFs with Beyonce and Adele, for goodness’ sake!

Once more, with feeling: This is less about meaningfully saving money, more about the “Washington Monument strategy.”