54 Christmas Trees For The Obama White House

The country is on the brink, people are suffering, and Barack and Michelle Obama decided to deck their halls with not one, not two, but 54 Christmas trees! How out of touch can one be?  Had a Republican president decorated the White House with the same amount of trees, can you just imagine the hollering that the liberal media would be doing in response to such extravagance and excess?  What's wrong with one nice, large  presidential tree?  Okay, so maybe two. But some in this country won't even be able to afford a small scrawny one.  Since Obama loves to share, why didn't he think of redistributing those 53 other trees to needy families or organizations?

Michelle was apparently ecstatic about that indoor forest of trees:

"We have 54 trees in the White House," an excited Michelle Obama proudly told visitors the other day. "54! That’s a lot of trees."

You think, Michelle?  You're damn tooting that's a lot of trees. And why aren't the environmentalists' panties in a twist over all those conifers that were cut down simply to grace the Obamas temporary residence for a month or so?

According to Investor's Business Daily, the Obama's almost doubled their Christmas tree stash this year, and it seems Bo, their dog is featured prominently in their Christmas tree ornaments.

In addition to 54 Christmas trees, Michelle Obama has overseen the placement of thousands of ornaments in public rooms. Many of the ornaments celebrate the Obama family dog, Bo, who seems to have become the First Family's favorite symbol of Christmas. Other decorations, including on the more prominent trees, were made by children in schools on U.S. military bases.

There's several hundred yards of garlands and wreaths all over the hallways and rooms. And, of course, a traditional gingerbread house that has working chandeliers and weighs about 300 pounds.

And the Obama family won't even be there to enjoy all that Christmas cheer because they'll be having a blast in Hawaii from December 17 through January 6th on the taxpayer's dime- or much of that vacation, will be courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer. If you recall, last year's Hawaiian vacation cost over $4 million, and this year they are spending a little longer there.

I can't wait to find out how much this year's holiday will cost us.

So much for "tightening our belts", Michelle. You enjoy your 54 Christmas trees and your trip to Hawaii, while the rest of us suffer.

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.