How much do you spend on your summer vacation? American households usually spend about $1,200 per person on summer vacations, according to a recent American Express survey.
Presidents spend more on their vacations than you or I. They have to. Air Force One and security does cost more than loading the Honda and heading to the beach.
Here's how much some recent presidents spent our tax dollars on vacation.
Ronald Reagan spent most of his free time at his California ranch. Taxpayers covered the cost of approximately $8 million for presidential travel during Reagan's first six years in office, according to the Los Angeles Times. That amounts to $1.3 million a year.
For George Bush the cost of flying Air Force One to his Texas ranch was approximately $56,800 per trip, for each of the 180 trips according to Media Matters. President Bush spent Christmas during his two terms at the White House so his staff and secret service could spend the holiday with their family, according to Conservative Byte.
Now Obama plans to blow away all previous presidents' leisure travel costs on our dime with a better than Disney World extravaganza trip to Africa.
However Obama had to cancel the safari because of the need to fill the surrounding jungle with snipers to guard the president from wild animals!
The trip will cost upwards of $100 million, the highest cost for any presidential vacation since Bill Clinton spent $50 million for a single vacation and it wasn't to Arkansas.
The Obama vacation will require a hospital ship stationed near their resort in case anyone needs medical attention, 14 limousines, aircraft and an additional 56 support vehicles. The cost for protecting a president is enormous.
Even so $100 million is a lot of money and I wondered just how far it would go were it spent on disadvantaged children who in their lifetimes might never have taken a single vacation. It's a wonderful thing to take a vacation. I hope the Obama's enjoy theirs.
The cost to send an impoverished child to camp for a week is around a $100.00.
My figures came from the NAACP's website. From this I calculate that for the same price spent on this one Obama vacation almost all of the children in the District Of Columbia, Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Delaware, Connecticut, Vermont and Obama's home state of Hawaii could be sent to camp for a week.
At a time when so many have had to tighten their belts to make ends meet and many have lost jobs and homes, why can't the president just enjoy Epcot Center with his family.
The sequester ended White House tours. The average American worker has faced layoffs, poor economic growth, and a sinking economy.
When combined with Obama's recent scandals, which have created a lack of trust in the IRS, NSA and the government, I wonder if this is the best time to spend so much money on a lavish vacation.
Why isn't the media outraged? Oh that's right, they get to go to Africa too.