This is the home provided by the taxpayers to the Vice President. It has 9,150 square feet of living space and is staffed 24/7 with personnel to attend to the needs of the VP. Pretty nice, huh?
Well, apparently the home at One Observatory Circle isn’t quite nice enough for “Middle Class Joe,” or at least isn’t as nice as his mansion in Delaware, so the taxpayers foot the bill for his round trip flights home on Air Force Two every weekend. We also pay for his travel back to the Washington, DC area to play golf with President Obama on Saturdays. According to Ronald Kessler, his weekend travel adds up to about $1 million per year.
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. (Read More)
Doug Powers wonders “Area condos? Doesn’t the Secret Service know they can rent from Joe and stay right on site?” Good question.
Update: Speaking of golf, President Obama had the 99th round of his presidency today. Biden didn’t join him this week, so hopefully we were spared the $20,000 cost of the trip.
Update: Lady Liberty linked – thanks!
If “gov’t quarters are available and directed”, a military term for “we got a house for you and you will use it!”, then it should be up to ol’ Joe to foot the bill out of his own back pocket if he doesn’t like the home “WE” provided for him, along with the travel expenses. Then WE could rent out that home to someone willing to pay the going rate for that chunk of property. Or does that make too much damn sense?
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Somehow over time these Executives of the people have flipped the definition of “serving” the country 180 degrees, even filtering down to legislative positions. Now they’re royals with celebrity and have administratively loaded themselves up with perks to lifestyles that have now gotten to the point of absurdity, selfishness and waste. We vote these people in to work for us the American citizenry; it’s a job they “applied” for. Security measures are one thing, but Joe is quite capable of getting along without 24/7/365 servants, now called “staff”. The left would normally rail and call it “Jeffersonian”, but Jefferson shouldered any costs personally. I wonder if the NAACP is looking into that.
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[...] Joe Biden’s Weekend Travel Costs Taxpayers $1 Million Per Year [...]
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