And remember: Obama understands your frustration. And he promises to do better.
No, really.
****
update: White House denies cost, provides actual cost as “secret”.
And remember: Obama understands your frustration. And he promises to do better.
No, really.
****
update: White House denies cost, provides actual cost as “secret”.
I would be happy if all he did was take vacations and never signed any legislation. We’d be better off.
If he only spent 200 million per day, it would be 73 billion per year. That’s chump change compared to the damage he’s done.
Duuuude ….
None of the lefties commenting at the link seem to find anything wrong with Obama using tax dollars to celebrate some festival in India. And they wonder why the voters took their hands off the purse strings yesterday.
To expand on cranky-d’s point: Do you suppose that if we offered the Indians $500 million a day, they’d take the Congress too?
Regards,
Ric
Good point cranky-d.
I don’t understand why he doesn’t stay on an aircraft carrier off the coast; that;s the ultimate in big pimpin’.
Rent an entire hotel? pffffft. Dude, I’m on an aircraft carrier; they’ve got better room service. And top-flight security that can put a cap in you? I got an enitire air wing; there ain’t no slack in fighter attack, jack.
Seriously, 40 aircraft, 34 Naval vessels, and renting 2 entire hotels (1 for his teleprompter’s posse!)? Maybe I’m growing forgetful, but I don’t remember Boooooooooooosh! needing to travel rock-star style like Baracky.
I guess it’s just a cultural difference…
Why are you all so racist that you would deny Captain Wonderful the opportunity to see India on $200,000,000 per day?
Boy the dollar really has dropped against the rupee!
Oh yeah, and Ric quipped the other day that we could reduce the defecit if we gave the Indians 500 million/day to keep him!
I don’t know. Looks to me like we’re outsourcing stupid and arrogant.
What was the most expensive trip ever taken by President Bush? Clinton?
I understand the security concerns and how that can be expensive, but the Presidency has grown into something crazy.
I read my daughter The Fisherman and his Wife last night. Perhaps President Obama should read it to his daughters and ponder its message.
I read that he requested that all of the Indians he was to meet should be gilded before presenting themselves in his view. Could just be a rumor.
I think that the Obamas (shall we say) enthusiasm for the perquisites of office is the raw material for a satirist of Evelyn Waugh’s stature.
Fortunately, I’m not the guy. I for one wouldn’t want to be condemned and denounced as unhelpful.
Wonder how much Wagyu beef Michelle is having imported for her entourage’s consumption?
And how Indians of the Hindu persuasion might feel about it?
Clinton’s might have been Hillary and Chelsea’s world-tour
vacationgood-will trip, but I really don’t know JD.And what’s with the 34 war ships? What an a-hole.
Ernst – it would be interesting to find out, no? I would like to see how they compare, on a daily rate, and a total price tag.
i think he shoulda stayed here and went
to an indian casino and enlisted james bond to
help him bet-cuz bond never loses
and he could bet 200 million a day and America would win win and michelle obama could be a bond girl
her name would be…Assatropia Cum
Is Michele proud of her country today? That’s important to me.
This must be why they make it so damn hard to impeach a president.
But I must admit, I’m looking forward to the pictures of the Obama family in traditional Indian garb. Heap big Barry in a leather thong and a big feathery chief hat? Hoots.
I’m sure he’ll ask about the peace pipe as soon as he hits the tarmac.
You know, instead of constantly sniping, how ’bout giving Obama some recommendations on how he could save some money while traveling?
I’ll start us off:
1) Michelle can pack some food (arugula, for example) for the family so they don’t have to always eat out.
2) Since India is an expensive trip, perhaps the Obamas should visit one of our 57 states?! Indiana sounds a LOT like India. I’m sure there are some Indian folks (dot not feather) who could make it come alive. They could even rent some Bollywood movies.
For left-wing elitists, they sure like to travel ghetto fabulous.
The plan is that our little country is totally on its own while he’s away. But it’s okay because Bernacke is still in charge.
Don’t you mean “tech support” not “casino”?
Carin – why must you torment me? Indiana would rather he stay away.
I don’t know that I would bet anything on that $200mil/day being accurate.
Good point, Slarti. Their ability to guesstimate costs have not been too good. They were only off about a trillion or so on BarckyCare.
ba haa haa .
I think there’s a racist joke in there somewhere, but the heck if I can bring it to light.
For example, here‘s a blast from the Clinton era:
Carin – why must you torment me? Indiana would rather he stay away.
You know, I think I’m on to something.
There are fewer monkeys in Indiana.
the only thing i got to be accurate about is peeing in the toilet bowl
i’m thinking about a sitting down pee style
cuz that got like a 100% accuracy rate
IT’S THE DAMN MONKEYS. Don’t you see why they need to spend so much money?
You racist hilljacks would JUST love to see Obama accosted by a monkey. But those 34 warships and thousands of secret service personnel are going to keep him safe from such an offensive (and RACIST) plot.
Carin, I think originally he planned to go to The Taj in Vegas, but he was afraid people like you would call him a hypocrite. $200 million in stimulus to poor Harry Reid’s constituents –gone. And it’s all your fault!
Let’s face it, what India doesn’t want is Obama to have poo flung at him on international television. All the rest is semantics.
i can’t give u any statistics about the
difference between ‘stand up peeing’ vs. ‘sit down peeing’- but i’ve been peeing all my life
and i’m positively sure that when u sit down to pee
there will be no wet floors or recriminations
hey, who left the seat up?
{evil cats pee in your moth when you sleep]
meow!
Let’s face it, what India doesn’t want is Obama to have poo flung at him on international television. All the rest is
semantics.simianatics.fixt.
Carin for the win!
It’s too bad Barry doesn’t have Bill Clinton’s reputation, then we could crack wise about how all Bill’s peccadilos cost us was a Senate seat.
Hey now, it’s a bargain. 66 cents per American per day to furnish a well earned respite for our magnificent, beneficent, and humble ruling family. My wife and I are happy to cough up our $13.20 for this event of a lifetime.
one more pee story and i’ll retreat
i was in this Godawful snowstorm and it took me
eight hours to get home..8 freaking hours! it sucked big time-all the traffic was bumper to bumper
but i had a couple of gatorade bottles in my car
and i could whip out my lil willy and pee in it
but as we where trudging along-bumper to bumper
there was a girl in the car next to me and i wondered
where is she peeing? how is she managing?
woman are so cool!
Honestly, this just gets weirder and weirder.
Jeez, you Earth people don’t appreciate anything I send your way. Ingrates.
Maybe he’s scoping out a retirement Satrapy?
Is Obama intending to hand out any movies in the wrong DVD format?
Gifties!
So Clinton had trips to China and Africa and somewhere else, and all 3 together were around $75,000,000. Those 3 trips, combined, would barely cover the first 8 hours of Barcky’s Traveling Circus.
There’s something Freudian in there; can’t put my finger on what, exactly.
Maybe Obama is making himself a giant nutsack full of giant nuts.
This site called FactCheck claims to be nonpartisan. Is that true? This is a real question.
FactCheck says the figure of 200 million a day for the Mumbai trip originates from a single source, although picked up by Drudge and widely reported. The White House says the exact figure is unavailable because so much of it involves the Secret Service and that has the word “secret” in it. Or something. Hey, I just now felt a circle happening. Anyway, figures are available for the Afghan war which apparently run at 5.7 billion each month, or 190 million a day. Yes, one entire luxury hotel does appear to be profligate. Yes, 40 aircraft, some say 50 does sound to me like a lot of aircraft. Yes, taking cabinet members along does seem unnecessary. And yes, perhaps the press could pay their own way. Altogether it does appear extravagant to an extreme, but it’s doubtful that it costs as much as an actual war. Having said all that, I’m not having another word on our so-called carbon footprint.
Thank you, bour3. Fact Check is an Annenberg site, I believe. Sometimes it seems like they try to be down the middle, and others, not so much.
I’m really thinking that it’s an utter misprint. How would one even begin to spend $200million per day on a trip? I’m just not believing it.
Perhaps it was 200 million INR? That works out to ~$4.5million, depending upon the exchange rate. That sounds far more ballpark-ish.
When they figure the cost of a war, do they figure in just the additional expenses, or do they figure total expenses? For instance, troops need to be fed and paid no matter where they are, and equipment costs money for parts no matter where it is.
That is something that has bothered me for a while.
We go to stupid extremes protecting the person of the president, whoever it might be at the moment. This is America, for crying out loud! Give him a kevlar vest and his own gun and let him sort it out.
That’s kind of what I was thinking, Doug.
I didn’t know there was anything in India worth 200,000,000 a day.
OK I’m bad
Don’t get me wrong — $4.5 million is still a lot of money, but it’s not an F-22 per day, if you get my drift.
Speaking of which, Mr. President, that’s one thing that pissed me off from the get-go. You cut the F-22 production, even though the lines were already running, and then you have the utter temerity to talk about worthless “shovel-ready jobs”. You flippin’ had jobs in place and your short-sightedness canned them.
Gah.
It costs money to take 34 warships and 40 planes, and 3000 people living in style. Then there are rumors underground tunnels were being constructed, etc., coconuts being cut down, and on and on.
The White House says the costs are exaggerated. But they say the actual price is “secret.”
Most open administration EVER!
If they could bring back a hot curry that does not give met the squirts, that would be cool.
What sorts of “warships” are we talking about? I mean, a CSG is only 6-7 ships, for Heaven’s sake! I can’t honestly believe the USN would divert the equivalent of 5 carrier groups for a Presidential visit.
Perhaps there are 34 total USN ships in the Gulf and the Indian Ocean and they’ll all have situational roles to play, Just In Case? Maybe that’s how they get to the 34 number…?
Make no mistake: I’m not defending Obama, his planners or his administration. I’m defending our military and find it highly dubious to suggest they could be roped into providing such an over-the-top amount of coverage for a single chief exec.
I dunno. Much of it is being kept hush hush. Here. And here.
Okay, so it sounds like one of our CSGs is likely to be moved close-in to the coast. I’m assuming a bevy of littoral ships/boats will comprise the remaining 25 or so “ships” will comprise the rest of that figure.
The security arrangements are not unreasonable for a trip such as the one Obama is undertaking. However, the plans for the trip seem to have been made with little thought given towards the expense such arrangements require.
I think someone totaled up the potential cost for operational time of a CSG and then applied ALL of that cost against the President’s trip. That’s a bit unfair — I’m willing to stake a claim that a CSG parked off the West coast of India will also be occupying itself with keeping an eye on Iran and ears out for counter-Somali-pirate ops. In fact, I’m willing to bet that such a CSG is already stationed right in that area for precisely those reasons and the peripheral security for the CiC visit is near-incidental.
He’s taking a Carrier Battle Group? Expecting trouble, is he?
The security arrangements are wholly unreasonable for a trip by any president.
In the U.S. the president is just another guy. There’s a succession plan. We do silly and expensive things to avoid something that’s not all that likely in the first place, and not likely to have much real impact on the country anyway. It’s not like the ship of state is rudderless without a president.
Those coconut trees can be downright evil, you know.
There are a couple currently deployed in that corner of the globe, due to its proximity to continuing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and Horn of Africa ops. And, given the terrorist attacks in Mumbai recently, caution is indeed called for.
In an ideal sense, yes. We’ve not seen an assassinated President in our recently-globalized world and the worldwide repercussions for a CiC’s death could be… severe.
Plus, it’s a bargain at $200 million/day to prevent those three scariest words in the English language: “President Joseph Biden”.
Defending the border, not so much…
Doug, I’m beginning to wonder. The Republic got by U. S. Grant and James E. Carter; “President Biden” is eminently survivable. At the very least, he’s not a case of malignant evil ameliorated by laziness. Mere stupidity isn’t that big a problem (W. H. Taft, q.v.)
What I’m not prepared for is St. Barack the Martyr, icon (with halo) to be displayed in all public buildings. $200 million a day is a small price to pay to avoid that.
Regards,
Ric
Ric:
You just sent a shiver (the bad kind) up my spine.
Hadn’t thought of that.
Doug (and Bob, if you are reading) just how would a CVN help with a security threat to the visiting US President? F-18s go in dropping bombs? Sounds like a MEU would be more than enough…
A MEU for the ground game. I guess a CVN would make for a quick water-based getaway if needed.
Still over the top. Although I’m receptive to the “God no, we don’t want President Dipstick to gain unnecessary additional renown as a martyr” argument.
Doug, is that what Chris Matthews would call an anti-tingle?
LTC John, according to the India papers, the Mumbai terrorist attack was initially water-based. So I guess plugging the water lanes with lots of boats would deter that.
Maybe the President’s visit is a pretext for pre-positioning assets in order to take out an aspirin factory in Pakistan. Gotta get that lightworker mojo back!
Maybe the Navy is planning to do an awesome precision-formation flyover before the start of the cricket match…
What did India ever do to us?
Nothing but take away IT programming jobs.
Colonel John,
My impression is that the fleet assets accompanying Obama are part of the Pacific Fleet. And I personally find the number of ships reported in the Indian media to sound a bit high, but, who knows? All of the official, and also informal, sources are pretty mum about the deployment since it involves POTUS security.
Broadly speaking a MEU is a whole lottta whup-ass, but would be more of a land assault force. Based on their mission of interdicting unfriendly sea-borne assets there’s no better cover than an aircraft carrier for controlling a large footprint of ocean. And the airwing would be able to detect and engage a large number of targets that might otherwise be undetected.
I have no doubt though that there are some SEALS and Marines with the fleet assets.
I suspicion that y’all don’t read all the comments. nonetheless, thanks for this one. I sent to all my friends just to keep their juices flowin. Even if you don’t read this I did thank you and that counts for something. sumpin?
Confirmed, the 34 ship flotilla, TF Obama, is a bit if an exaggeration by the Indian media. http://tiny.cc/noflotilla I thought that number to be high. And, of course, they won’t comment. My guess? Closer to 10 total, including subs.
I’m sticking with the carrier there though, since the mission is presumably sea interdiction.
But a MEU has helicopters and Harriers, right? (I may be showing my age with the Harriers guess). 24 guys in Zodiacs doesn’t need a CVN to stop them…
Meh, if they want to parade the IO fleet, so be it. I’ve seen plenty of very attractive Indian women, so if they ended up giving the sailors a little shore time… heh heh.
“I’ve seen plenty of very attractive Indian women…”
Roger that, Colonel. They are some grade-A eye candy for sure.
The MEU’s LHA/LHD typically has a couple of helo squadrons and 8 Harriers, but doesn’t have the eyes in the sky; the E-2D Hawkeye airborne early warning aircraft. They can scrutinize a lot of square miles of ocean for seaborne or airborne threats.
OK, guys, I haven’t been able to do much research, so a lot of this is guesswork. I’d be glad for a reality check. Bob, what do you reckon it costs to keep an F18 in the air, per hour?
For some strange reason :-) no FBO advertises “wet” 747s by the hour. I’m used to light twins; they burn around 50 gallons per hour, call it $250, and their owners figure to use them 400 hrs/yr at around $750 per hour, roughly a third each fuel, maintenance, and crew.
A 747 burns 11 tons per hour, well over three thousand gallons, but pays less because it buys fuel in bulk; it comes out to over $8,000 per hour just for the JET-A. Using the 3x “rule of thumb”, that’s close to $25K/hr operating cost. DCA-BOM, call it 20 hours, that’s half a million bucks each way, a million round trip; he’s taking two of them, so $2 million just for the two main airplanes.
Adding in C17s for the Presidential limo, patrol choppers, escort Suburbans, and the parts for the “security tunnel”, plus Air Force or Navy escort all the way, and I can get to $20-25 million just for the plane tickets without breathing hard. $200 million just don’t go as far as it used to, y’know?
Regards,
Ric
What did India ever do to us?
I think it bought some F-16s from us, in addition to assorted accessories like targeting systems and (I’d guess) weapons.
Most of which we also sold to Pawkeestahn.
Maybe both of them have a bone to pick with us.
Well Ric, Back in the day it cost about 10k/hr to operate my beloved Tomcat, I understood the Hornets to be about half that; I’d increase thise figures by 25-35% for 13 years of inflation adjustment.
And I’d use 12 tn/hr of fuel consumption on the modified 747s, but according to GAO cost estimates( http://tiny.cc/Otripindia ) it costs a staggering 56k/hr to operate Air Force one, and an addition 7k/hr for each C-17 cargo plane.
It could easily be seen to rack up a ton of money for sure.
I hope this is helpful.
I am telling you guys, if they could bring back a good curry that does not give you the squirts, it would be worth every penny that this trip costs.
Best guess on the carrier? If there’s another 9/11 involving an Indian / Pak / Chinese airliner headed for the Taj Mahal hotel, we won’t need anyone’s permission or cooperation to turn it into dust bunnies.
#82
Well. I wish India the best of luck. She can take solace in the fact that Obama is not their president.
Who does one bow to in India anyway?
Oh. Well.I’m sure he’ll find someone.
$200,000,000.50, with tip.
If you remember that Biden is the Veep, you’ll think this money is well spent.