We’re on the hook for $1.4 billion so that the First Couple can party like rock stars. The First Lady alone has a propensity for traveling extensively on our dime (with her kids, of course), when she’s not coming up with plans to starve your school kids. In comparison, the British royal family costs its taxpayers $57.8 million, but you can make an argument that the royals and aristocracy bring in more tourist money that they cost the public. (I disagree.)
“The most concerning thing, I think, is the use of taxpayer funds to actually abet his re-election,” says Robert Keith Gray, author of Presidential Perks Gone Royal, alluding to the extensive use of Air Force One for his campaigning (when it isn’t carrying various overpaid, underuseful staffers about.) Traditionally, presidents pay the equivalent of first class tickets for their personnel, but not the New Sun King or Marie Antoinette.
I think I’ve found a place to cut the federal budget.
