Trump's first 11 weeks = $27 Million+ in vacations

[Anonymous]

Obama averaged $12 Million per year.

[Utah]

I’d be more surprised if he was actually working. All he does is s**t, tweet and campaign for his next election. The dumbass can’t even remember to sign the executive orders the few times he actually works. 

[UtahFanSir]

So Trump’s working vacations will cost me $128 million per annum versus $11 for Obama. For some, the $117 million will be well spent, for some, a huuuuuge waste of taxpayers money. I’m calling for an audit.

[UteFanatic]

Also, how much is it costing the taxpayers to protect Trump Tower because Melania doesn’t want to live at the White House?  It’s funny how silent the GOP are right now on all these issues.

[Utah]

Yeah, imagine all the programs we could save with that money. 

[Anonymous]

It costs about $1 Million per week to protect Melania/Baron. Then there is the cost of protecting the Trump kids as they travel the world on business trips.

[zeous]

<Sigh>. Instead of calling bulls**t on both for spending (how many times their approved salaries?) too much per year, and calling it for what it is (third-world theft / embezzlement), the conversation is stupid f**king party lines. 

More regular people need to shake the cobwebs of hypnotized two-party trance out of their brains and realize both parties are bending us all over so that we, the people, can do something about it.  Granted, they’ve divided us 75 ways from Friday, so… we need one thing we can unite on.  Just one.  What is that one thing… I wish I knew.

[Utah]

I’ve been saying this for 5+ years. It’s not left vs right. 

It’s top vs bottom. 

[Anonymous]

Or instead of playing up this “both sides” bulls**t you can acknowledge reality.

$96 Million for 8 years of Obamas vs $1 BILLION for Donald+Melania

[zeous]

Oh I acknowledge that $96 million is less than the trajectory Trump is on.  No problem.  Does that make you feel better?  Does that make you feel like your team wins, because your guy *only* stole $96 million instead of whatever Trump will wind up stealing?  Is that really a win for you?

[Utah]

Did you bitch about what Obama spent on his vacations? Or about his golfing? 

If you did so, then HOW IN THE HELL can you be OK with this? 

It’s pretty simple stuff here. 

[UteThunder]

@Utah – That knife cuts both ways. If all of you Trump haters didn’t complain about the cost of Obama’s vacations, then you can’t complain about Trump’s.

Or is it like Zeous said, and you guys consider it a win for your team because Obama only cost us $96 million?

[Utah]

I most definitely can complain if I think that 12 million is ok but 127 isn’t. 

And, for the record, I thought 12 million was NOT ok and I definitely am not ok with Trump. 

[UteThunder]

Well, of course you CAN complain about one and not the other, but to do so would only make you look like the leftist “my team won” type that Zeous described.

[Anonymous]

No. That only holds true if both sides are equally bad.

[zeous]

Dude.  Reading comprehension fail.  Total fail.  I’m NOT okay with Trump.  Jesus Christ no wonder we get raped so badly by the politicians. 

My point is to question the original assertion that Obama stealing $96 million in “vacation” money is somehow *better* than however much Trump will end up stealing in “vacation”/”protection”/whatever-the-hell-other-euphamistic-adjective money.

Either way, THEY STOLE/ARE STEALING FROM US.  Both of them. 

[Anonymous]

It is better. And no, this is not a “teams” thing (see my post below).

If someone on the street pickpockets $100 of mine and then a different person drains $1000 from my bank account, I’m going to be way more p**sed at the bank account thief.

 

But let’s put this into context. All presidents take a hefty amount of vacation days. It wasn’t something new with Obama–that’s what makes the complaints about it over the past 8 years so much more pathetic.

As of Dec 23, 2015, Obama had taken 182 vacation days (partial or full). Let’s assume that the average of 26 per year held up for 2016 as well. So Obama had 208 total.

Now look at what those who served 8-year presidencies before him:

George W Bush = 533 days

Bill Clinton = 174 days

Ronald Reagan = 390 days

So, as you can see, Obama wasn’t an outlier who wasted an extra-large amount of tax dollars on vacations. Funny how that is the narrative, though, isn’t it? And funnier still how one of his chief critics on this was Donald Trump.

[zeous]

$96 million is not a small amount of money. At least not to me. Both of them stole/are stealing from me and presumably you, assuming you work and pay taxes.

But care about one of the thieves more if you wish.

[Anonymous]

OK, if you’re going to ignore the facts I gave you there is no reason to continue this conversation. Obama must have killed your dog or something.

[zeous]

You compared dollars with days.  Does not compute.  Have the dollar amounts?  Not that it matters since we’re arguing different things.  There is no winner in this for me.  A theft of a hundred million is only “better” than a theft of a billion if the theft of the billion happens.  But it is still the theft of a hundred million all by itself, regardless of the theft of the billion.

Both suck.

 

[Newbomb Turk]

The difference for me is that was one of Trump’s campaign planks. He “wasn’t going to be going on golf vacations”. Of course, that is what he is doing on practically everything he said during his campaign, at least so far. “We are going to repeal and replace with something so much better and so much cheaper, and we are going to do it quickly”. We are seeing how that is working out. I would like to see some sort of draft or something (anything) about his trillion dollar infrastructure plans. That was the one (and only) thing that I agreed with him on.

[Utah]

I, too, liked his infrastructure ideas, but he will have the same problems everyone else has:

How do you pay for that? 

Back to my previous post, I don’t get how Republicans have run around for the last 8 years screaming about Obama, golfing, and vacations, yet when it comes to Trump, vacations and golfing…

crickets. F**king cowards. 

Stand for something. Demand better. If what Obama did was not ok, then let’s do better. Let’s work harder. 

But, no, that’s not the Republican party. They have no ideas, they have no plan. All they do is whine. 

[zeous]

Yeah.  Politicians have zero accountability to the voters, so they lie on the campaign trail.  This is not news.  Like Obama who promised he was going to be all about transparency, then promptly classified more documents than anyone prior and signed NDAA 2012 indefinite detention and prosecuted more under espionage act than all prior combined etc etc etc.

The con is on.  And too many of us are late on the saavy. 

 

[Anonymous]

Well, Trump was the “anti-politician” in his campaign, so…yeah.

 

Anyway, I get what you’re saying, about holding both sides accountable. I absolutely agree with that. BUT we have to realize that this is a First Past The Post Republic that we live in. It will always be a choice between 2 parties. It is obvious to the majority that both sides have issues. But this whataboutism that you and others have done is not a good way of going about trying to change things. It actually hurts us in 2 important ways:

1. It normalizes whichever side’s actions are the more extreme (in this case Trump’s).

2. It dissuades people from voting.

We have to choose the lesser of 2 evils. There is no other choice.

[zeous]

Fundamentally disagree. There are always more than 2 choices.

[Anonymous]

Then you are fundamentally wrong. You can’t deny the system we are in. Nothing will change it.

[zeous]

Nothing will change it?  The only constant in the universe is change.  But keep the faith in your prophets and your secular religious tribe of choice all you wish. 

[AZswayze]

I like that POTUS takes breaks. If anybody needs it, he does. Problem is that he specifically went at Obama over his golf outings, as you said. Then again, I feel like Trump really needs these breaks or he would literally just say “f**k it” and stop showing up to work altogether (not that that would be a bad thing).

[UtahFanSir]

Trump was a liar on the campaign, and we were warned, but he got a lot of folks to buy those lies. Now we know, but clearly for some, there is no buyers remorse. What if this is just the tip of the iceberg?

Edit: Some of you guys are so sensitive that if you bump up against the wall, you would bleed to death before you could get help.

[AZswayze]

Also, Pence has suddenly become a much better fit for office than Trump, in light of recent actions. Pence’s theocratic leanings have always scared the s**t out of me, but I trust him far more than Trump when it comes to handling the situations we’re currently facing. We bomb Syria, then send Naval ships to North Korea just days afterward? This has a very high probability of ending badly. 

[UtahFanSir]

But, but, but, this is making America great again. You fool. ;–)

[SkinyUte]

The problem (for me, anyways) is less about the actual money, but more two other things:

1. The fact we’re going to cut programs like NEA or VOA because we “can’t afford them” and need to be “fiscally responsible”, yet we have plenty of money for Trump to spend on his golf outings and protecting his family in NYC because they can’t be bothered to live in DC. That’s bulls**t.

2. There’s a horde of people (including Trump himself) who spent the last 8 years howling about how Obama was unfit to be President because he was taking too many vacations. They are now completely silent when it comes to Trump doing the same thing…and significantly worse. It’s just one glaring example of hypocrisy, of which there are many (on both sides)

[UtahFanSir]

Making America great again a million dollars at a time.

[Anonymous]

Agreed!

[Guba]

When does all the “winning” start happening that I am supposed to get sick of??

[Author]

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