Biden Spends $1 Million Annually for Weekend Trips- Is Biden really the New Sheriff in Town or just another vacation whore on your dime? What say you?
Chi~Cat
2012/06/06 15:03:54
Ronald Kessler reporting from
Washington, D.C. June 4, 2012 — Last June, President Obama appointed Vice President
Joe Biden to root out wasteful government spending. But behind the scenes, it’s
a different matter.
Every Friday, Biden takes a helicopter designated as
Marine Two from the vice president’s residence to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland
and then hops on Air Force Two to fly back to his home in Delaware. At the end
of the weekend, he returns on Air Force Two, usually a Boeing C-32.
During warm weather, Biden regularly
returns to Andrews on the airplane on Saturdays to play golf at the Air Force
base with President Obama. After the golf game, he flies back to Delaware and
returns to Washington on the plane on Sunday evening — all at taxpayer
expense.
The cost of flying Air Force Two is $22,000 an hour, so each
half-hour trip to or from Delaware costs about $10,000. Each golf game costs
taxpayers $20,000. At that rate, the annual cost to taxpayers of Biden’s weekend
trips is well over $1 million.
In addition, the Secret Service rents more
than 20 condominiums in the Wilmington, Del. area for agents who must accompany
Biden when he returns to his home state.
Biden’s press office had no immediate
comment.
“Biden leaves every Friday from Joint Base Andrews, so he gets
lifts from the observatory via Marine Two to Andrews Air Force Base, takes off
via Air Force Two, lands in Delaware, and stays the weekend and then comes back
on Sunday nights,” says a Secret Service agent familiar with the trips.
“Every
three or four weeks when it’s warm, he gets up there on Saturday and then will
fly back on Air Force Two,” the agent says. “While Air Force Two is sitting on
the tarmac at Andrews, he goes and plays golf with the president at Andrews Air
Force Base, gets back on the plane, and flies back to Delaware. Let me tell you
something, that is egregious.”
Besides that, “The Secret Service rents
condos in Wilmington because his schedule is so fluid and never concrete enough
to properly prepare for his visits to Delaware,” the agent says. “So they keep a
fully staffed Secret Service advance team in Delaware in condominiums that we
lease so that when he does these things back and forth to D.C., they’re up there
ready for him to arrive.”
The Boeing C-32 that usually flies as Air Force
Two is a specially configured Boeing 757-200 commercial jet which typically
requires a crew of 18.
As a U.S. senator, Biden was proud of the fact
that he commuted daily by train from his home in Delaware to Washington during
the week. Amtrak named the newly renovated Wilmington station the Joseph R.
Biden, Jr. Railroad Station. But after taking office as vice president, a Secret
Service agent says Biden began the pattern of commuting on Air Force Two on
weekends, costing taxpayers close to $4 million so far.
As recently as
May 12, Biden flew back to Andrews to play golf with Obama and with Biden’s
second son Hunter and White House trip director Marvin Nicholson. They played 18
holes of golf for four and a half hours.
Biden also plays golf at a
country club he belongs to in the Wilmington area. The Secret Service agent says
that since Air Force Two parks at Andrews, Obama is obviously aware that Biden
is running up a huge government tab for each game of golf he plays with
him.
Asked if President Obama thinks these costs are appropriate, why he
has not questioned Biden flying to play golf with him at a cost of $20,000 per
game, and in view of these costs of $1 million a year for weekend trips, whether
the vice president should no longer be in charge of cutting government waste,
the president’s press office had no immediate comment.
In addition to his
salary as vice president of $230,700, Biden has free use of the vice president’s
residence at the Naval Observatory. The vice president’s residence is a handsome
9,150-square-foot, three-story mansion overlooking Massachusetts Avenue NW in
Washington.
Complete with pool, pool house, and indoor gym, the white
brick house was built in 1893 as the home of the superintendent of the U.S.
Naval Observatory. Congress turned it into the official residence of the vice
president in 1974 and gave it the address One Observatory Circle.
During
the day, at least five Navy stewards attend to every personal need of the second
family, including cleaning, cooking, shopping for food, and doing the
laundry.
Biden has portrayed himself as a regular Joe, a product of a
working class family who takes on millionaires and Republicans who are said to
be out of touch with middle-class Americans.
Last June 13, Obama placed Biden in charge
of a Campaign to Cut Waste, which will “hunt down and eliminate misspent tax
dollars in every agency and department across the federal government,” according
to the White House website.
In an email, Biden told supporters that he
was the “new sheriff in town.” He said that “particularly at a time when we’re
facing tough decisions about reducing our deficit, it’s a no-brainer to stop
spending taxpayer dollars on things that benefit
nobody.”
As always, feel free to leave a comment and I know there will be Naysayers, truth hurts. Oh, don't even try to blame Bush on this one~
Congrats to Governor Walker! Hip, hip, Hooray~!
Washington, D.C. June 4, 2012 — Last June, President Obama appointed Vice President
Joe Biden to root out wasteful government spending. But behind the scenes, it’s
a different matter.
Every Friday, Biden takes a helicopter designated as
Marine Two from the vice president’s residence to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland
and then hops on Air Force Two to fly back to his home in Delaware. At the end
of the weekend, he returns on Air Force Two, usually a Boeing C-32.
 |
| Vice President Biden boards Air
Force Two. (AP Photo) |
returns to Andrews on the airplane on Saturdays to play golf at the Air Force
base with President Obama. After the golf game, he flies back to Delaware and
returns to Washington on the plane on Sunday evening — all at taxpayer
expense.
The cost of flying Air Force Two is $22,000 an hour, so each
half-hour trip to or from Delaware costs about $10,000. Each golf game costs
taxpayers $20,000. At that rate, the annual cost to taxpayers of Biden’s weekend
trips is well over $1 million.
In addition, the Secret Service rents more
than 20 condominiums in the Wilmington, Del. area for agents who must accompany
Biden when he returns to his home state.
Biden’s press office had no immediate
comment.
“Biden leaves every Friday from Joint Base Andrews, so he gets
lifts from the observatory via Marine Two to Andrews Air Force Base, takes off
via Air Force Two, lands in Delaware, and stays the weekend and then comes back
on Sunday nights,” says a Secret Service agent familiar with the trips.
 |
| Biden has been a long-time
proponent of train travel. (AP Photo) |
three or four weeks when it’s warm, he gets up there on Saturday and then will
fly back on Air Force Two,” the agent says. “While Air Force Two is sitting on
the tarmac at Andrews, he goes and plays golf with the president at Andrews Air
Force Base, gets back on the plane, and flies back to Delaware. Let me tell you
something, that is egregious.”
Besides that, “The Secret Service rents
condos in Wilmington because his schedule is so fluid and never concrete enough
to properly prepare for his visits to Delaware,” the agent says. “So they keep a
fully staffed Secret Service advance team in Delaware in condominiums that we
lease so that when he does these things back and forth to D.C., they’re up there
ready for him to arrive.”
The Boeing C-32 that usually flies as Air Force
Two is a specially configured Boeing 757-200 commercial jet which typically
requires a crew of 18.
As a U.S. senator, Biden was proud of the fact
that he commuted daily by train from his home in Delaware to Washington during
the week. Amtrak named the newly renovated Wilmington station the Joseph R.
Biden, Jr. Railroad Station. But after taking office as vice president, a Secret
Service agent says Biden began the pattern of commuting on Air Force Two on
weekends, costing taxpayers close to $4 million so far.
As recently as
May 12, Biden flew back to Andrews to play golf with Obama and with Biden’s
second son Hunter and White House trip director Marvin Nicholson. They played 18
holes of golf for four and a half hours.
Biden also plays golf at a
country club he belongs to in the Wilmington area. The Secret Service agent says
that since Air Force Two parks at Andrews, Obama is obviously aware that Biden
is running up a huge government tab for each game of golf he plays with
him.
Asked if President Obama thinks these costs are appropriate, why he
has not questioned Biden flying to play golf with him at a cost of $20,000 per
game, and in view of these costs of $1 million a year for weekend trips, whether
the vice president should no longer be in charge of cutting government waste,
the president’s press office had no immediate comment.
In addition to his
salary as vice president of $230,700, Biden has free use of the vice president’s
residence at the Naval Observatory. The vice president’s residence is a handsome
9,150-square-foot, three-story mansion overlooking Massachusetts Avenue NW in
Washington.
Complete with pool, pool house, and indoor gym, the white
brick house was built in 1893 as the home of the superintendent of the U.S.
Naval Observatory. Congress turned it into the official residence of the vice
president in 1974 and gave it the address One Observatory Circle.
During
the day, at least five Navy stewards attend to every personal need of the second
family, including cleaning, cooking, shopping for food, and doing the
laundry.
Biden has portrayed himself as a regular Joe, a product of a
working class family who takes on millionaires and Republicans who are said to
be out of touch with middle-class Americans.
Last June 13, Obama placed Biden in charge
of a Campaign to Cut Waste, which will “hunt down and eliminate misspent tax
dollars in every agency and department across the federal government,” according
to the White House website.
In an email, Biden told supporters that he
was the “new sheriff in town.” He said that “particularly at a time when we’re
facing tough decisions about reducing our deficit, it’s a no-brainer to stop
spending taxpayer dollars on things that benefit
nobody.”
As always, feel free to leave a comment and I know there will be Naysayers, truth hurts. Oh, don't even try to blame Bush on this one~
Congrats to Governor Walker! Hip, hip, Hooray~!
Top Opinion
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BUCCANEER~POTL~PWCM~JLA 2012/06/06 15:26:24
Does anyone respect this goofy peckerhead anymore - even people in his own party?
More like Deputy Fife
Of course in the old west the sheriffs often worked hand in hand with the Madams, if the sheriff didn't in fact own the establishment.