We're This Far In Debt...

We castigated the automobile executives for daring to fly in private planes to be grilled by Congress when they went begged for money.

We hounded ING executives over their bonuses as their company continued to hemorrage money.

But apparently there is a double standard for the President. And in this case, it was not even that he was going somewhere on state business. President Obama fly himself and his wife to New York for dinner and a show on Broadway. It was not part of any other trip. It was not part of something else that he had to do in New York. It was simply the use of C-37B (or as its civilian counterpart is known the Gulfstream V), a military helicopter from the airport at JFK to Manhattan, and then the presidential motorcade through the city to the theater and later to a restaurant. And then they reversed it all to get back to Washington, D.C.

Now, just as a bit of comparrison, the auto executives flew around 500 or so miles in their gulfstream at a cost of $20,000.00. They didn't also hop helicopter from the airport to their final destination.

Are we to believe that President Obama's flight cost any less? Why are people not outraged? This is a ridiculous expenditure made on the public dime at a time when the treasury is empty! Or did people forget about the fact that we are engaged in one of the largest deficit spending splurges ever.

But I suppose since he is the president, and his name is not George W. Bush, that we are all supposed to ignore this. Somehow I doubt President Obama is going to write a check anytime soon to pay the taxpayer's back for this.

It's so nice to have a President who is willing to show that he is tough on budget overruns both in his policies and his private life.