Thanking the Taxpayers

For only the second time in my adult life, I am not ashamed of my country. I
want to thank the hard-working American people for paying $242,000 dollars
for my vacation in Spain.

My daughter, Sasha, several long-time family friends, my personal staff,
and various guests had a wonderful time.

Honestly, you just haven’t lived until you have stayed in a $2,500 per
night private, 3-story villa at a 5-Star luxury hotel.

Thank you also for the use of Air Force Two and the 70 Secret Service personnel
who tagged along to be sure we were safe and cared for at all times. I promise that I did not allow them to “party” with any prostitutes on the trip. By the way, if you happen to be visiting the Costa del Sol, I highly recommend the Buenaventura Plaza restaurant in Marbella; great
lobster with rice and oysters ! I’m ashamed to admit the lobsters we ate
in Martha’s Vineyard were not quite as tasty, but what can you do if you’re not
in Europe ? You have to just grin and bear it.

Air Force Two  (which costs $11,351 per hour to operate according to
Government Accounting Office reports) only used 47,500 gallons of jet
fuel for this trip and carbon emissions were a mere 1,031 tons of CO2.

These are only rough estimates, but they are close. That’s quite a carbon
footprint, as my good friend Al Gore would say, so we must ask the American people to drive smaller, more
fuel efficient cars and drive less, too, so we can lessen our combined carbon footprint. The good news is that Al was o.k. with the planes amount of CO2 emissions. “Anything for you, Michelle.” He’s so sweet. He’d make a great President after Barry’s two-terms are up.

I know times are hard and millions of you are struggling to put food on the
table and trying to make ends meet. I also realize that many of you haven’t had a vacation in a couple of years and it may seem that mine are excessive. But hey – I AM the First Lady. So, I do appreciate your sacrifices and do
hope you find work soon.

I was so exhausted after all this traveling that Barack took our family on a luxury vacation in
Maine a few weeks ago. I just had to get away for a few days.

Cordially,
First Lady Michelle Obama

P.S. Thank you as well for the $2 BILLION dollar trip to India from which
we just returned !

P.S.S. Thank you, too, for that vacation trip to Martha’s Vineyard; it was fabulous.