THE TELEGRAPH – BLOGS – NILE GARDINER: What the great French historian Alexis de Tocqueville would make of today’s Obama administration were he alive today is anyone’s guess. But I would wager that the author of L’Ancien Régime and Democracy in America would be less than impressed with the extravagance and arrogance on display among the White House elites that rule America as though they had been handed some divine right to govern with impunity.
It is the kind of impunity that has been highlighted on the world stage this week by Michelle Obama’s hugely costly trip to Spain, which has prompted a New York Post columnist Andrea Tantaros to dub the First Lady a contemporary Marie Antoinette. As The Telegraph reports, while the Obamas are covering their own vacation expenses such as accommodation, the trip may cost US taxpayers as much as $375,000 in terms of secret service security and flight costs on Air Force Two.
The timing of this lavish European vacation could not have come at a worse moment, when unemployment in America stands at 10 percent, and large numbers of Americans are fighting to survive financially in the wake of the global economic downturn. It sends a message of indifference, even contempt, for the millions of Americans who are struggling just to feed their families on a daily basis and pay the mortgage, while the size of the national debt balloons to Greek-style proportions. >>> Nile Gardiner | Saturday, August 07, 2010
Michelle Obama’s super-glitzy holiday with Sasha in Marbella is probably costing the American taxpayer at least one million dollars. Any estimates which are less than this are risible.
To any person with sound judgement, this is an incredible sum to spend on a holiday in these austere times, especially for someone in public office. The average American is hurting, and hurting badly. How sensible is it, then, for the Prez, or his wife, to go on such an extravagant trip abroad? The fact that it can be done doesn’t mean that it should be done.
Excuse me for asking, but what was the purpose of the trip? Was it to take Sasha on a nice short break? If it was, then Obama and Michelle are guilty of giving their children false values. As the leader of a nation which is broke, and in deep depression, neither he nor his wife should spend taxpayers’ money as though there’s no tomorrow; because at this rate, there really will be no tomorrow!
In times of severe economic hardship, people in public office should show solidarity with the people that put them into office: They need to suffer a little too. That way, they gain in support and respect. The way that the Obamas are doing things, all they do is lose in popularity and increase people’s contempt for them. Obama will surely pay a heavy price at the next election. – © Mark
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