The Royal Trough

            I'm not the only one who has accused the Obamas of living like royalty at the expense of the American taxpayer.  Mark Alexander is the latest to express his scorn for the first family's self-indulgent life-style.  In a June 20th article, he refers to them as "the fattest cats of all," adding,"...much like their record accumulation of national debt, their unmitigated arrogance and bloated hypocrisy exceeds all that of previous executive administrations combined." I couldn't have said it better.

            By now we are all familiar with the extravagant vacations the Obamas have taken every year to places like Hawaii, Martha's Vineyard, and Vail.  But this year they are behaving less like fat cats and more like hogs shoving their flat-nosed snouts into the public trough. 
            Her porcine majesty Michelle Obama is even worse than her perpetually fund-raising husband.  Remember the safari to South Africa, the jaunt to Spain, the ski trip to Aspen while her husband was golfing with Tiger Woods?  She has been called a junket junkie whose travels, all with a full entourage, has cost taxpayers, by some estimates, as much as $10 million over the last four years.
            As profligate as these excursions were, they pale in comparison with her expenditures in Ireland earlier this month.  Now, we can understand the first lady wanting to ride along on her husband's wasteful and fruitless trip to Copenhagen to lobby for a Chicago Olympics or to accompanying him on state visits to Europe and Asia.  But is there any absolution possible for requisitioning Air Force Two to follow Air Force One to Northern Ireland for June's G-8 Summit, so that she could take a two-day side trip to party in Dublin and to check the Book of Kells in search of a distant ancestor?  Where was the necessity for housing her 30-member retinue in a five-star hotel in which she took a $3,300 a night suite for herself and her daughters?
            This one little side trip cost U.S. taxpayers...Get this!... $5.1 million!  And what did the sycophants in the media have to say about this?  Typically, the disgusting Huffington Post gushed about her wardrobe, the "...awesome printed Lela Rose vest and on-trend Burberry trench coat and a covetable utility jacket."
            But there's more, a lot more.  After Ireland the royal family takes itself on a heritage tour to Africa that the Washington Post, not exactly a Right Wing newspaper, estimates will cost $100 million.  USAF cargo planes airlifting 14 limousines and 42 support vehicles, helicopters for the largest security detail ever, fighter jets over-flying the royal presence, Navy ships offshore in case of emergencies, all this and more to serve and protect the monarchs on their tour of ancestral lands.
            That's not just shoving your snout in the trough, it's jumping in bodily.
            What about the Sequester back home?  As Marie Antoinette famously said about the starving peasants, "Let 'em eat cake."