Remember the outrage when the three auto company CEOs flew their private jets to Washington?
Well, the new head of GM flew three jets, one helicopter, and countless police cars to a Broadway show:
How Obamas’ romantic £120 trip to Broadway racked up a £45,000 bill
…that’s for three private jets, two helicopter rides, extra planes for security and closing roads for motorcade
The romantic jaunt is estimated to have cost the taxpayer more than £45,000 in transport and security costs – because the date was in New York.
The President used three planes, one to carry the couple and two to ferry aides and reporters all the way from Washington.
Since there are no reporters in the NY metro area? or are they part of the entourage?
The cost of each flight was thought to be nearly £15,000.
The bill was pushed even higher with the use of two helicopters, one to take the Obamas to catch their plane in Washington and another to zip the party into Manhattan from JFK airport.
Police also shut down New York streets for the motorcade to pass through so they could get to their date on time.
But hey, they were mindful of the carbon footprint:
In one concession to the tough economic climate, the couple flew on a smaller Gulfstream rather than the Boeing 747 customarily used as the presidential Air Force One.
Either that, or they didn’t want people to remember the Air Force 1 photo-op.
Oh, look,
Did they close the harbor, too?
Gateway Pundit beat me to the MasterCard ad,
** Martini to celebrate first 5 months of spending binge- $9.00
** 2 tickets to Joe Turner’s Come And Gone, a play about a man coming to terms with the history of slavery- $120
** 3 private flights to Manhattan- $45,000** Taking your wife out on a date on the US taxpayer’s dime- Priceless.
UPDATE
Bruce calculates the carbon footprint:
Total Obama Broadway Cost To The Environment? 0.63 tons of CO2 for less than a day. (As a reference, I calculated my home’s carbon footprint for a year: 3.82 tons of CO2 – for a year.)
I wonder if the Obamas will go to Triangulo‘s Friday afternoon milongas on their next NYC date.
It’s actually almost twice the amount shown above because the The Mail posted the cost in British Pounds. So the tickets cost $196.60 while the transportation and other costs were more like $73,721.10.
I love playing with those currency calculators because they make me feel rich. Except don’t try this either alone or using Bolivars and whatever passes for currency in Zimbabwe today.
I actually am greatly sympathetic to a president, any president, taking advantage of his office to act like a 15-year old. Clinton’s F-16 ride, Bush handling the controls of a S-3 Viking or the elder Bush in his speedboat with 825 horsepower and Secret Service agents humming, “Nearer My God to Thee.” But dinner and a Broadway show, sorry, even the blandest of middle class America could probably think of something more exciting to do with their own jet, helicopter and enough guards to start a civil war.