“Their lodging has included a stunning $3,500-a-day, beachside rental home.”
President Obama and the rest of the First Family are set to spend their 2015 Christmas vacation in Hawaii.
This will mark the eighth time in a row the Obamas have kicked back in the chillest state in the union for the holidays.
According to Huffington Post:
“In the past, the family has opted for the east side of the island of Oahu, in the upscale town of Kailua, about 45 minutes from tourist-heavy Waikiki. Their lodging has included a stunning $3,500-a-day, beachside rental home.”
While there’s no word on how much this upcoming vacation will cost taxpayers, Judicial Watch reports that the Obama family’s previous Christmas vacations have cost a pretty penny — or not so pretty, if you’re the taxpayer footing the bill.
According to Judicial Watch, who “obtained records from the U.S. Department of the Air Force revealing that the Obama family’s 2014 Christmas vacation to Honolulu, Hawaii, cost taxpayers $3,672,798 in flight expenses alone. Christmas in Hawaii is an annual tradition for the family and their most recent visit, from December 19, 2014, to January 4, 2015, marked their seventh Hawaiian vacation. The documents came from the Department of the Air Force in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on January 5, 2015. Costs for the trip to Hawaii, to the West Coast, and to Martha’s Vineyard last year, cost nearly $3 million alone in transportation.
According to the documents, the Obama’s spent 17.8 hours in the air round-trip at $206,337.00 per hour, bringing the total cost to taxpayers to $3,672,798.60.
According to other figures obtained by Judicial Watch over the past three years, Obama Hawaii Christmas vacations have cost taxpayers $15,540,515.10 in transportation expenses alone. This includes outbound and return flight expenses in 2012 totaling $4,086,355.20. (The Secret Service provided documents for Obama’s Christmas 2012 trip to Honolulu. The grand total is $654,599.40 including $409,225.78 in hotels.) Flight expenses for the Obamas’ 2013 Christmas vacations to Hawaii cost taxpayers $7,781,361.30.
The Christmas 2014 flight cost $3,672,798.60. The average American family of four spent $4,580 on Christmas in 2014.
For their Christmas 2014 vacation, the Obama family rented the same plush oceanfront estate they’ve used for the past several years in the wealthy neighborhood of Kailua, located near Honolulu on the island of Oahu. According to the London Telegraph, the four-member Obama family spent its extended two-week vacation at a palatial mansion with: “13 bedrooms, a prime location on Kailua beach and all the mod cons that the First Family could ask for … Beyond the lawn lies the famous beach, up which the waves roll majestically, 24 hours a day.”
Judicial Watch, which obtains most of its data regarding vacation expenses via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, claims the Obama family’s Christmas excursions over the last three years alone have cost the taxpayers a total of $15.54 million — and that’s just transportation expenses.
Source: White House Confirms Where Obama Will Spend Christmas… And Here’s How Much It’ll Cost Taxpayers
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