Obama’s staggering imperial perks

A strong article by Mark Steyn on the lifestyle of the Grand Sultan Obama which the media doesn’t mind a bit. Thus, for example,

According to the USAF, in 2010 Air Force One cost American taxpayers $181,757 per flight hour. According to the Royal Canadian Air Force, in 2011 the CC-150 Polaris military transport that flew William and Kate from Vancouver to Los Angeles cost Her Majesty’s Canadian subjects $15,505 per hour—or about 8/100ths of the cost.

Yet, continues Steyn, while the Canadian media obsessed over the cost of Prince William’s travels, the U.S. media has nothing to say about the more than ten times greater cost of Obama’s travels.

Another sample:

The president has one pooch, a photo-op accessory called Bo, who unlike [Queen Elizabeth’s four] corgis requires a full-time handler. In contrast to the stingy remuneration offered by the royal household, the presidential dog-walker is one of 226 White House staff earning over $100,000 a year. For many centuries, the King had a courtier whose somewhat intimate duties were reflected in his title: the Groom of the Stool, a position abolished in 1559. Now, after two and a third centuries, the American presidency has evolved to the point that it has a full-time six-figure Groom of the Canine Stool.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at December 11, 2012 07:57 AM | Send