High Cost of VIP Travel: Biden's $665,545 Hotel Bill in Moscow, Obama's $450,000 Wars

[explorerimports]

The Washington Times reports that the cost of Obama's Africa trip, estimated as high as $100 million, is overshadowing President Obama's agenda. If past VIP trips are any indication, lodging and local transportation would represent only a fraction of the $100 million, yet those costs would likely still dwarf those of the average citizen traveling abroad. In late March, Vice President Joe Biden's $321,000 limo bill and $585,000 Paris hotel bill for his trip to Europe earlier this year were revealed.

While the amounts spent were deemed fairly ordinary by government insiders, the fact that the closely-held information was found on a publicly available government website had some speculating that perhaps the postings had been inadvertent. Wolf Blitzer, who spent seven years reporting from the White House, even called it "an extremely rare glimpse." However, further investigation has revealed that the information is not as rare as previously supposed.

For example, Vice President Biden's trip to Moscow in 2011. The contract was awarded to the Moscow Ritz-Carlton on February 24, 2011 and , according to the accompanying Justification and Approval (J&A), the estimated cost for 1,778 room nights was $665,545. As has been noted before, contracts for travel for high level government officials are not subject to the same requirements for competitive bidding as other government contracts due to security concerns. Screw the pooch

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs...l-moscow-obamas-450000-warsaw-tab_738138.html

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[3MTA3]

This isn't new or unique to Obama and Biden. These costs include staff and security. This topic is more of a distraction from the real scandals that the press is less and less interested in every day.

 

[drew]

This isn't new or unique to Obama and Biden. These costs include staff and security. This topic is more of a distraction from the real scandals that the press is less and less interested in every day.

You're right, the focus needs to remain on their efforts to subvert numerous Constitutional amendments.

 

[deadeye]

9. All political discussion must be directly related to firearms, gun rights, or the second amendment.

There are many different people here with many different viewpoints on various issues. Like religion, discussing these issues here is highly likely to offend and very little good can come of it. We need to be focusing on the things that bring us together (firearms), not the things that have the potential to divide us (politics).