Demonstrating once again that they are either tone deaf to the economic plight of the American people, feel entitled to extravagance by virtue of office, or that they simply don’t care, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama took two separate jets to the same place on the same day just hours apart.
The two trips took them to California where they appeared on different television talk shows. President Obama was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live in Los Angeles while Michelle graced the set of the Ellen Degeneres Show in Burbank – her forth since becoming First Lady.
The two airports are approximately 28 miles apart.
In terms of dollars, the president’s trip on Air Force One cost an estimated $228,000 per hour of flight time. The White House did not disclose the costs associated with Michelle’s jet.
White House deputy press secretary Eric Schultz told reporters that the president and first lady’s “schedules were not in sync in order to travel together.” “I’m not even sure they overlapped,” he said when asked if the president and first lady saw each other during their trips.
Mr. Obama later flew from Los Angeles to Phoenix where he visited the veterans’ hospital at the center of the veteran’s healthcare scandal involving two waiting lists for primary care appointments unfolded.
In that scandal, there were two appointment waiting lists. One was a secret list of waiting times that veterans were actually experiencing – sometimes up to six months – and a second public list that veterans were moved to when their appointments fell within a 30-day appointment goal.
Veterans Administration officials received bonuses for fraudulently meeting their “wait time goals”.
Mrs. Obama appeared on the “Ellen” show to promote the fifth anniversary of her initiative to combat childhood obesity. The show included a segment where Mrs. Obama and Ms. DeGeneres demonstrated a “high-energy” dance routine with back up dancers interrupted briefly by a technical glitch with Mrs. Obama’s microphone hookup.
