04 October 2009

Don't Forget the Cost to Feed Oprah

The password is "junket:"

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's failed bid to bring the 2016 Olympic Games to Chicago cost more than a bruised ego.

Taxpayers shelled out probably $1 million or more for the president, his wife and others to fly to Copenhagen and back to woo members of the International Olympic Committee.

A 2006 congressional study pegged the cost of flying Air Force One at $56,518 an hour. The Pentagon recently said it cost $100,219 an hour to fly the huge, reconfigured Boeing 747 without Obama aboard. The Pentagon estimate included more costs for support needs, such as maintenance.

At those rates, the president's 14-hour trip to Copenhagen and back (air travel cost alone) cost about $790,000 to $1.4 million.

Every time the public contributes to a sports stadium, a freeway, launching the space shuttle, etc, all I hear are the bed-wetters cry about starving families, rundown schools or empty food shelves. Well, predictable sheep, where are you on the matter of O's failed voyage to Denmark?

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