“Even as Obama postures as a champion of average Americans, he continues to run up excessive tabs for taxpayer-funded political junkets. Over the Labor Day Weekend, for example, Obama ran up a total of $1,539,402.10 in taxpayer-paid transportation expenses.” – Judicial Watch

President’s Political Junkets Continue Unabated

It has become a tiresome, tedious – and costly – routine. Hollywood calls with a passel of cash, and President Obama comes running – at great expense to taxpayers – to fill up his political coffers. That’s what we discovered anew after obtaining records from the U.S. Department of the Air Force highlighting yet another Obama fundraising trip to Los Angeles and San Francisco, California. These documents came to us in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed on October 20, 2014. Instead of advancing the nation’s interests and keeping the public trust, the president is instead, once again, using taxpayer money to subsidize lavish political junkets.

On October 9, Obama attended a ritzy fundraiser hosted by Hollywood actress Gwyneth Paltrow in Los Angeles.  Obama also attended “a $15,000-per person ‘roundtable’ discussion fundraiser for the DNC on Friday morning at the home of restaurateur Michael Chow and his wife Eva, a fashion designer.”

Then he went to San Francisco for two more fundraisers, including one at a “private home.” The AP reported that “the event, his fourth California fundraiser in three days, is closed to media coverage.”

According to the newly released records JW obtained, transportation for Obama to Los Angeles, California, on October 9, 2014, for the Paltrow fundraiser cost taxpayers $1,011,051.30. Transportation for Obama to San Francisco, California on October 10, 2014, fundraiser cost taxpayers an additional $165,069.60. Continue reading →