White House Aides Urging Obama To Rein His Wife’s Spending In
It was just last month that Michelle Obama took a modest trip to Spain to be with a friend who recently lost a friend. And then, you know, go shopping. The trip was no big deal, consisting only of a private Air Force 757, three shifts of uniformed and plain clothes agents and military personnel, six White House advance staffers and two East Wing staffers, deputy Chief of Staff Melissa Winter and Mrs. Obama’s personal assistant, Kristen Jarvis.
Oh, and a stay at the five-star Villa Padierna beach resort. Total cost to the taxpayers? $500,000, though that seems a bit low given that the cost of the private Air Force chartering alone cost over $56,000 per hour. But I digress.
Now there appears as though there is some alarm among the ranks of the Obama administration as Michelle Obama’s spending spree on trips, redecorating and shopping continues. The bill has hit $2 million, and some are worried that it’s sending the wrong message to Americans many of whom are struggling to keep their homes and food on the table during the recession.
Nearly 15 million people are un employed, but that hasn’t stopped the first lady from “spending like Marie Antoinette” and appearing to live it up “like a lottery winner,” fume outraged critics. Worried White House advisers have told the president he quickly needs to get his wife “under control” because her reckless spending – on trips, shopping and redecorating – is sending an intensely negative mes sage to Americans in a bad economy and could under mine his re-election plans. “The president’s advisers hit the roof recently when they found out Michelle was arranging other ex otic trips in the new year with girlfriends – on top of sprucing up their White House living quarters and her plans to do some redecorating at their home back in Chicago,” dis closed a top Washington source. “They’ve estimated that all the spending will top more than $2 million!” “They’ll flip if she takes more exotic vaca tions – and they won’t care if renovations to the White House liv ing quarters and their house back in Chicago are done by benefac tors. It still sends the wrong message.
I don’t play the class warfare game. I don’t hate rich people. I like that they’re rich, because that means others in our society have the opportunity to be rich.
But there’s something just plain wrong about frolicking on the taxpayer’s dime while the country as a whole suffers and the government runs annual budget deficits well over $1 trillion.
Tags: Economy, jobs, michelle obama
