About That "Taxpayers Spent $1.4 Billion on Obama Family Last Year" Fake Outrage

Today’s wingnut outrageous outrage began at Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller, in an article by Alex Pappas titled:

“Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion on Obama family last year, perks questioned in new book.”

Taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on everything from staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family last year, according to the author of a new book on taxpayer-funded presidential perks.

In comparison, British taxpayers spent just $57.8 million on the royal family.

Author Robert Keith Gray writes in ‘Presidential Perks Gone Royal’ that Obama isn’t the only president to have taken advantage of the expensive trappings of his office. But the amount of money spent on the first family, he argues, has risen tremendously under the Obama administration and needs to be reined in.

Gray told The Daily Caller that the $1.4 billion spent on the Obama family last year is the ‘total cost of the presidency,’ factoring the cost of the ‘biggest staff in history at the highest wages ever,’ a 50 percent increase in the numbers of appointed czars and an Air Force One ‘running with the frequency of a scheduled air line.’

This flagrant display of Obama Derangement Syndrome, of course, led to a flurry of activity on Twitter which was brought to my attention by LGF member Alouette. It begins with Donald Trump:

Brits spent $57.8M on the royal family. Obamas cost us $1.4B in expenses–including entertainment thedc.com/P9pDX2 Living large on us.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 28, 2012

Others tweeted, such as the bumbling Steve Forbes:

How’s this for the 1%? Taxpayers spent $1.4B on Prez last year -even on his re-election efforts.See @alexpappasdc thedc.com/OWfQt3

— Steve Forbes (@SteveForbesCEO) September 27, 2012

But there’s one slight problem with this outrageous outrage. The total cost for the White House under Republican president George W. Bush in the year 2008 came to a grand total of $1,592,875,254, or $1.6 billion dollars. Using this number we find that the Obama White House spent $0.2 billion less, or a net savings of $200 million dollars. (These figures don’t include classified expenses.)

The Bush figures are from “To Serve the President” by Bradley H. Patterson.

Summary:

Total Cost of the Whole White House for Fiscal Year 2008 (Bradley H. Patterson)

• Bush White House 2008: $1,592,875,254
• Obama White House 2011: $1,400,000,000
• Net Savings Under Obama: $192,875,254

Nothing to see here.

Update:

I came across the website for the book that’s led to this recent outburst of wingnut fauxtrage: White House Expenses/ It contained a small image that I decided to Photoshop to reflect my findings.

Obama – The 1.4 Billion Dollar Man

Bush – The 1.6 Billion Dollar Man

Never a dull moment on bullshit mountain.

Update 2:

Adjusted for inflation Bush’s $1,592,875,254 price tag comes to $1,704,411,959 in 2012 dollars.

Update 3:

John F. Groom

The author of “The 1.4 Billion Dollar Man: Costs of the Obama White House” is a John F. Groom who seems to have authored numerous self-help books. I was able to find several cartoons in his “private” yet publicly available web page of his professional website. Some examples:

“Reparations”

“Obama in Armor”

“Obama Token”

I believe the racial factor here with John F. Groom is rather self-evident.

You can find John F. Groom on Twitter at @attitude_media or @CostsOfObama. His other website includes Groom Ventures.

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