Nearly $500K to send Michelle Obama on vacation to Africa - Daughters listed as "Senior Staff"

How much does it cost taxpayers to fly First Lady Michelle Obama, her two daughters and her mother, a niece and a nephew, a hairstylist and makeup artists to South Africa and Botswana to give a few speeches, meet Nelson Mandela, and enjoy a safari on a private game preserve?

This is sick and wrong.

We are being preached to each and every day about how the rich (you know, those making over $200K per year) need to pay more taxes, how we need to sacrifice for the National debt, how we should bail out corporations to help boost the economy, how it is all someone else's fault that the current Governmental Administration has to deal with all of these problems - and then as we eat our ramen noodles we now get to watch as Michelle Obama goes on a Safari to Africa for a half of a million dollars.

Hey Michelle, how many forclosures could that money bail out? How many yearly salaries could that provide? How many mouths could that feed?

Am I the only one who thinks that these people have NO IDEA of what Americans are really going through?

As cute as Michelle Obama's whole "let them eat cake" attitude is, it frankly sickens me!

I have no problem with spending the money to send them to Africa. It is the money spent to bring them BACK I have issues with.

I recall something similar which lead to a minor amount of discontent in France in the late 1700s:

"Let them eat cake..."

Its good to be the king.

Or to expound on Aestheteka historical anecdote: let them fly coach.

She really can't do her own damn hair and makeup? I get that she's a personality but wow...

I was a little surprised it was only going to cost 1k for meals... that seems... low especially for 21 people.

Sounds like fraud to me, listing the daughters as senior staff. Half a million

Some pics of the trip here if anybody wants to see where their taxes go: www.huffingtonpost.com...

I bet you spat your coffee out over this, try suing for a damaged keyboard/computer Seriously though guys WTF??? its outrageous!!!

c'mon.. she does buy her own cleaning supplies at target, so she is saving the tax payers a little.

I think its ridiculous what they spend on unnecessary trips. it happens by a lot of people with government jobs..and someone has to seriously draw the line , especially during hard times.

wow..nice little holiday to the tune of 1/2 a million..

reply to post by LearnedToPlayNice


Oh....yeah...just great.....(not!)....so I am wondering...is that why the federal government...was saying they didn't have enough money to pay the retired and disabled this last July? Because they had to pay for that trip....

I'm just saying.

this country teatering on the bring of anahilation

people protesting in the streets

people jobless and homeless and clueless

and send the ol wifey and kiddies to africa ON THE TAXPAYER DIME!

what a BAFOON!!!!

all hail the most glorious leader and his family may the sun never set on their most glorious most luxrious lifestyle

paid for off your blood your sweat and your tears.

hey you little people!! you dont amount to a hill of beans.

seriously 100% totally PATHETIC!

And these are the same idiots who can't understand why occupy wall street is happening...

It SHOULD be occupy WASHINGTON!

How do these arrogant narcissistic idiots think America is going to take this news? Do they actually think we will approve???

OBAMA MUST GO!! him and his wife both. In the 3 years obama has been in office his wife has taken more "trips" than any other first ladie I can remember. All of them totaling in the hundreds thousands of dollars. Everyone else is suffereing from economy problems shes flyin all over the world on vacations disguised as buisness on taxpayer money. no wander the economy is so bad. all of the money is going to mrs obamas travel fund. This is ridiculos

reply to post by LearnedToPlayNice
I posted on the White House FB wall the question of whether this was true or not, and immediately got a response from a "Russ Wilkinson", who from what I can tell is an "Entertainer"... his response was... "In a word..NO" lol ahhhh that's pretty funny, hey I'm just trying to fact check

All royalty travel everywhere on the peasants dime.
spare no expense

reply to post by LearnedToPlayNice
The scary part is, their kids ARE senior staff members.
Have you looked at Obama's policies? Nothing against his kids, but we need someone other than teenaged girls do foreign policy and economic legislation.
The Barbie Act of 2009 should've been an eye opener for everyone.

I'm seriously curious about the "outrage" over the "vacation."

Surely she is not the first First Lady to take a vacation, and surely not on the taxpayer dime at that. Was it equally an outrage when Laura Bush took her daughters on safari in Africa?

I just find it odd that no matter what anyone in this family does it is an outrage and sickening event, even though it is often something every other family to live in the White House has done.

In trying to find some further information on previous First Lady vacations I found this, and they had a quote that summed up my thoughts nicely...

So there's not a whole lot to undergird Judicial Watch's outrage, though that was never the point. Hatchet-jobs like these are less about good government than they are taking pot-shots at the administration. The First Lady's Africa trip was nothing out of the ordinary, but when you cherry-pick a few numbers and gin up the requisite amount of faux-righteous anger, you can turn almost anything into a damaging meme.

I could probably spend hours finding previous trips by pretty much any family to reside in the White House, but I felt this one was fitting and I really don't care enough to put in the effort.

Happy flaming.

Oh, the link...

mediamatters.org...

reply to post by ThaLoccster

You almost had me convinced until you sourced mediamutters.
Why not source Archie comics for the same reason? It'd have as much weight.

Sounds like a big number, but look at it subjectively. Half a million dollars divided up between the population of the country is just over a tenth of a cent per citizen. A tenth of a penny. Most of this cost goes into security and private aircraft. Realistically, I don't think that we can except the first family to fly commercial (or that the secret service would ever allow that).

Having said that, this is still a total waste of money. In a time where we are supposed to be cutting back, it is up to the people in charge to set an example. How can you expect hundreds of politicians to agree with spending cuts when the president (and family) seem to be in no hurry to cut their spending?

reply to post by beezzer


But Laura Bush did do the same thing, along with pretty much every other presidential family. The source doesn't change the facts.