I'm inclined to believe them, and I just want to hear both sides. Does anyone have any credible evidence to the contrary?
Roger H2010-11-05T18:28:37Z
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President Obama's trip to Asia and South Asia has drawn unusual and apparently erroneous criticism that the visit will cost taxpayers $200 million a day.
The apparent source of the figure is a Nov. 2 report by the Press Trust of India, a news agency that quoted a single, unnamed Indian official in Maharashtra state. No other news organization appears to have corroborated the figure.
The White House does not discuss costs or security measures for presidential trips but said the numbers "have no basis in reality" and were "wildly inflated."
FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, also concluded this week that the report was erroneous, noting that $200 million a day exceeds public estimates of the costs of the war in Afghanistan, which are about $190 million a day.
"Given the dubious source of this assertion, the fact that the claimed cost exceeds the cost of a war, the flat denial by the White House and the lack of any evidence to support the claim, we'll classify this one as false," the group said.
In other words, the Republican FOX News infomercial is apparently unfounded and improbable.
No, It will cost over $200 million per day, over $2 billion for the ten day trip total.
Well, we, the United States, currently have 2, not 1, aircarft carrier battle groups on station and conducting "security operations" in the Arabian Gulf off the Coast of Mumbai (Bombay) India. The USS Harry S. Truman and the USS Abraham Lincoln. Both are Nimitz Class attack carriers. The Pentagon has not denied their presence or operations (probably becasue the press has failed to ask them the question directly, after all we are talking about the Obama Adminstration and they have a record of parsing and lying), the Pentagon merely states that "the deployment has nothing to do with the Presdiential trip".
Sure, it is just a coincidence.
The orignal press REPORTS (multiple) were released by NDTV, New Delhi Television Ltd., the largest media outlet in India and the Capital City of India's main TV station. Visit Mcauleysworld on Wordpress for links to the original press reports and photos of the Carrier Flight operations just 48 hours ago.
My Uncle worked for the Treasury Department (SS) and while the costs of security alone is classified the true numbers (domestic) are about $700k to $1.2 per 3 day event (normal stay) plus logistics. Overseas adds incredible logistics and often event planning (now Homeland Security) starts over 30 days ahead with a dozen agents minimum. SS post Reagan shooting debacle trust almost no department or agency now (LAPD being on of the exceptions due to the advanced training and SWAT team). It is common on longer stays over 3 days to have war ships deployed to the areas (seldom more than a half dozen). The normal battle group with aircraft carrier is less than a dozen. I called him and he says he has no true idea of the exact costs as he doesn't know how many people (numbers have been from 1000 to 3000). He said it could cost $50 million a day easy. The trip to make the bid for the Olympics was over $100 million for only two days total.
Now in all fairness the military and Secret Service are like having a lawyer on retainers. If they are not doing this, they are doing something. Recall when the blue dress showed up and Pres. Clinton (after the aspirin factory bombing didn't work out) went to I think it was Africa....cost was incredible. Not uncommon for Presidents to get out of town after things go badly. It may also have been the reason President Clinton was impeached as he did fight, dodge and lie to congress for best part of a year.
To figure true costs try to book a package to these locations. Adding Indonesia (which is the 4th most populated country in the world is very expensive due to all the unrest with the Muslims terrorists and security concerns are dramatic and may justify the naval armada. India, Korea and Japan have a much better handle on there populations. So take a group of four adults with 5 star accommodations and private jet, it could cost 80-100k. Rule of thumb is private security and pre-planning (many top business professionals are forced to do just this with private security) can make costs 7 times greater. That all being said it is not hard to see where some crazy numbers in the $500 million for 10days could be real.
Hope that helps.... it is an awful lot of money for sure, at a time we are trying to cut back and get a better handle on our own expenses as a government. Remember how Washington (congress) tried to embarrass the auto makers when they said they flew their own planes (paid for by their own companies) a few hundred miles to Washington from Detroit. HELLO WASHINGTON, CAN YOU HEAR US NOW......
They do not release the facts/figures to protect the president's safety. If there were assasins or enemies out there who wanted to hurt the president, those facts/figures could be used by the assasins to plot. So nobody knows how much is being spent exactly. However, we do know that it won't cost 200 million per day. It will obviously cost money, but regardless of whether you like this president or not, he is the leader and representative of our country. His life needs to be protected. We have so many domestic and international problems right now, any more tragedies will only hurt our country more. International trips are also necessary. The US is the strongest nation in the world, we want to stay #1. To do this, we need to work with other countries around the world. We need to maintain our international allies and meet with diplomats. We need to cooperate with other nations. Past presidents have had try to maintain international relations, and they do so with international trips. This president is no different