(01-03-2012 12:09 PM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote: (01-03-2012 11:48 AM)MTPiKapp Wrote: President's always spend entirely too much on vacation. Bush spend over $20 million just on flights to and from Crawford and those weren't the only vacations he took. It was crap when Bush did it, it's crap now, but it's nothing new. Non story.
20 Million over 8 years on flights to Crawford..
Obama spent three million on flights *in December*.
That's still $2.5 million a year just on his flights to and from Crawford, which again, are not the only trips he took.
At the end of Obama's time in office, his vacation dollars won't be significantly more than Bush's. Again, it's nothing new, and the system allows it. People who already don't like President Obama are simply using this as more fuel to the fire. You don't like it? Talk about reforming the system, getting a cap placed on how much the POTUS can spend on his vacation, be it per vacation, per year, per term or whatever.
Until the system changes, this practice will continue, the next POTUS be it in 2013 or 2017 will spend entirely too much as well, but it will go unnoticed or at least defended by those who like him. "Well Obama spent this much..." and so it will go with every misstep made be the next GOP president. "Well Obama did this" and "Obama did that", therefor what
our guy is doing is justifiable or not as bad or whatever.
I'm a fairly young man(28) but I really don't like the way I view the political landscape of this country, so much vitriol spewed between the two sides. The right wing who acted so incredulously about how Bush was constantly being based by the left and said with such conviction that the office of the POTUS should always be treated with at least some respect, even if you do not like the man himself. Now the right is acting just as bad, if not worse towards President Obama and justifying the very actions they condemned simply by having the attitude of "you did it our guy".
I was a member of a fraternity that was made up almost exclusively of staunch conservatives but got my degree in a field that is made up almost exclusively of screaming liberals. I like to think that I fall somewhere in between the two extremes, but either way, I usually didn't speak up much when it came to politics because my views were usually not extreme enough to satisfy either side. It really disgusts me how much people are judged in this country just based on their political views. We all want what's best for our country, right? Just because someone's view of what's best for the country is different than your own doesn't make them a bad person. I have a right to my opinion just as you all do to yours, but those opinions on their own do not make any of us bad people, regardless of what side we fall on.
I really hope the next POTUS, regardless of what party he or she comes from, can get us as a country started back in the right direction, but I'm afraid the whole pendulum mentality and pointing fingers across the aisle and justifying/excusing the actions of your guy based on the actions of the previous guy are all going to get worse before they get better.
