government waste, politics

Obama’s Trip to India Will Cost $200 Million Per Day!

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Note: See final update below. It looks like we may have been punked by the Indian media – at least on the cost of the trip, and the warships. The carbon footprint of the trip is true, so is the part about the coconuts. And we still don’t know what this is costing us.

And he says he’s worried about the poor in America? Please! Talk about out of touch. President Obama’s little election aftermath escape to India is going to cost us $200 million per day!

The US would be spending a whopping $200 million (Rs. 900 crore approx) per day on President Barack Obama’s visit to the city.

“The huge amount of around $200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit,” a top official of the Maharashtra Government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit said.

About 3,000 people including Secret Service agents, US government officials and journalists would accompany the President. Several officials from the White House and US security agencies are already here for the past one week with helicopters, a ship and high-end security instruments.

Update: I’m not sure if the 34 US warships headed over to India are included in the total. I certainly hope so. Sheesh!

Update 2: It gets worse – Bill Zwerger tells me:

And to this, you can add the ridiculous irony of the humongous carbon foot-print for this wholly unnecessary jaunt. Including 40 planes, 34 ships, and 6 armored vehicles, the total output comes to a whopping 8,469 metric tons of CO2 emitted for the Washington-to-Bombay round trip. That’s roughly the equivalent of the CO2 output for the City of Raleigh, NC…for an ENTIRE YEAR! Come on all you greenies out there, where’s all your outrage now?

Is there any wonder why the elections turned out like they did?

A lot more people than Obama couldever have imagined in is narcissistic little mind are now paying closer attention to his rampant hypocrisy.

Ouch!

And then there’s this odd piece of news:

All coconuts around the city’s Gandhi museum, one of Mr Obama’s stops in the city, are being taken down.

Mani Bhavan, where Mahatma Gandhi stayed during his freedom struggle against the British, is among five places the US president is visiting in Mumbai.

“We told the authorities to remove the dry coconuts from trees near the building. Why take a chance?” Mani Bhavan’s executive secretary, Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, told the BBC.

It keeps getting worse!

The US military is building a special air conditioned tunnel so Obama can visit the Ghandi museum!

Update 2: Perhaps the Indian media exaggerated the cost of the trip. I would like to know how much it cost, though. And nobody’s telling us that. Oh, and the 34 war ships may not be true either.

Update 3: Sorry I had to turn off the comments on this post. It’s not that I mind the vitriol so much. It’s just that the first time someone leaves a comment here I have to approve it. I was having trouble keeping up and it just got to be a bit much. Again, my apologies.