Rinse & Repeat Obama's Presidents Day Vacation

Rinse & Repeat

FLASH BACK
Uploaded on Feb 21, 2011
Michelle Obama Goes Skiing in Colorado
by Keith Koffler on February 19, 2011, 11:34 am

First Lady Michelle Obama is on "a private family trip" in Colorado where she is skiing with daughters Sasha and Malia, according to an administration official.

"The First Lady and several close friends are chaperoning their children on a ski trip," the official told the press pool reporter who is following President Obama today.

Reports coming out of Colorado say she arrived Friday night and is staying at the Sebastian Hotel on Vail Mountain. Rooms start at $605 per night for a room with two queen beds and head north of $2,000 for multi-bedroom suites.

Mrs. Obama has decided to jet out to Vail -- instead of visiting slopes closer to Washington DC in Virginia or Pennsylvania -- despite already incurring criticism for taking opulent excursions, particularly a trip last summer to Spain. There, she stayed at the country's swankest hotel and, like this weekend, was traveling without her husband.

Mrs. Obama also raised eyebrows in December when she left earlier than President Obama for their annual vacation in Hawaii, incurring added expenses for taxpayers that likely ran well in excess of $100,000.

The trip to Vail, which almost certainly requires use of a large Air Force jet, would likely be much more expensive for taxpayers than a shorter journey by chopper or motorcade to a resort near Washington. Mrs. Obama will likely pay for a portion of her trip, but many costs of a first lady's travel are borne by taxpayers.

President Obama today went to serve as the "parent coach" for for Sasha's basketball team, even though Sasha was not there.

Meanwhile, Vice President Biden and his wife are spending the weekend in Key Largo.

Watch Obama Golf as the World Burns

OBAMA SPENDS MORE TIME ON GOLF THAN ECONOMY

An eye-opening new report by the Government Accountability Institute reveals that President Barack Obama averages just eight minutes more a week on economic meetings than the average dog owner spends walking their dog.

When it was recently reported that Mr. Obama had played his 100^th round of golf, the president said that playing golf was "the only time that for six hours, I'm outside."  Therefore, by his own estimate, the president has spent 600 hours playing golf, as compared to just 412 hours in economic meetings of any kind throughout his presidency. 

“You should know that keeping the economy growing and making sure jobs are available is the first thing I think about when I wake up every morning,” Mr. Obama said in 2011 to an audience of UPS workers.  “It's the last thing I think about when I go to bed each night."

But just how little time Mr. Obama has spent working on the economy can be seen in the data contained in the Government Accountability Institute’s analysis:

• Throughout the first 1,257 days of his presidency, Mr. Obama has spent just 412 hours in economic meetings or briefings of any kind
• In 2012, so far Obama has spent just 24 total hours in economic meetings of any kind
• Assuming a six day, 10-hour workweek, Obama has spent less than 4 percent of his total time in economic meetings or briefings of any kind
• There were 773 days (72 percent), excluding Sundays, in which he had no economic meetings
• Mr. Obama has spent an average of 138 minutes a week in economic meetings.  According to a study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, new dog owners spent an average of 130 minutes a week walking their dogs

The study, which was based off of the president’s official schedule, practically bent over backwards to include anything even remotely akin to an economic meeting. For example, “Obama meets with Consumer Product Safety Commission Chairwoman Inez Tenenbaum” was tallied as an economic meeting. Also included was, “Obama meets with Cabinet secretaries,” which may or may not have dealt with economic issues, counted as well.

Still, with Americans suffering in the worst economy since the Great Depression, Mr. Obama’s time spent in economic meetings came in shockingly low.

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