The Breakdown Of Costs For Obama's $4 million plus 2011 Hawaiian Christmas Vacation

Honestly, I don't begrudge the President a vacation, everyone deserves time off, although most people these days can't afford to go anywhere further than their backyard. I know I can't. I have to scrounge every penny I can round up to pay my $2,300 plus per quarter COBRA health insurance payment. The acting work has been very slow the past few years, so I haven't requalified for my insurance, but at least I'm insured.  I'd love to go somewhere, but I can't.  I'm happy for those who can afford to go somewhere on holiday, and I feel that way about B.O. However, with the economy in shambles, and Barack telling us to 'tighten our belts', spending $4 million plus on his upcoming 17 day Hawaiian vacation strikes me as a tad obscene.

So, your neighbour Joe can't afford to take a vacation this year, but some of his taxes are going to fund the bulk of Obama's.  Doesn't seem fair at all. But what irks the most is that wifey Michelle added at least $100,000 to the total cost of this vacation by refusing to wait until hubby worked out all that payroll tax cut mess at home.

Malia Zimmerman of the Hawaii Reporter breaks down the known costs of this dream vacation for the four Obama's and their huge entourage of White House Staff and Press Corps, Secret Service, Coast Guard, Navy Seals, local police and ambulance.

The biggest expense is President Barack Obama’s round trip flight to Hawaii via Air Force One, a cost the GAO office estimated at $1 million in the year 2000. Contacted today, the GAO confirmed there is no report the independent office affiliated with Congress has prepared since 2000 to operate Air Force One and Air Force Two.

However, the U.S. Air Force provides the most current numbers of $181,757 per flight hour. Travel time for Air Force One direct from Washington D.C. to Hawaii is about 9 hours or $1,635,813 each way for a total of $3,271,622 for the round trip to Hawaii and back.

Obama is picking up his own beach rental tab of $151,200 (isn't that nice of him?), the rest of the estimated $4,113,038 will be paid by you and me.
 
Here's the rest of the breakdown.