By Conn Carroll
Earlier this month
President Obama went to Florida where he spent the bulk of his time raising money at overtly partisan fundraisers for his own reelection campaign. But by also scheduling a 34-minute detour to the Florida Atlantic University where he gave a speech (also quite partisan) promoting the Buffett Rule
a policy that everyone in Washington knows is a political gimmick that has no chance of becoming law Obama was able to bill a large chunk of the trip to taxpayers as official" business.
This scam has become so brazen that even Obamas most loyal media courtiers are pleading with him to drop the charade. Yesterday after MSNBCs Mike OBrien
tweeted out How much longer do we have to pretend that these POTUS events arent campaign events?"
The Huffington Posts Sam Stein responded Seriously. This is campaigning. Just call it that. Its not that dirty of a word."
Obama is not the first president to use the privileges of the White House to his advantage politically. If everyone else did it why cant Obama? And legally Obama can. But that does not mean he should not pay a political price for his hypocrisy. This is a man who ran on Hope and Change" after all.
Obama is the leader of the executive branch of the United States Government. His use of taxpayer money sets an example for every other federal employee in the world. When Obama cynically misappropriates taxpayer funds for his own personal gain it sends the message that it is OK for every other government employee to do the same.
It tells Secret Service agents who travel to Colombia on the taxpayer dime that it is OK to bring hookers back to their taxpayer funded hotel rooms. Prostitution is legal in Colombia. Everybody does it. What is the harm?
Obamas example tells GSA employees planning conferences to spend as much money as possible. Were in a recession.
Government spending helps the economy. What is the harm?
Yesterday the
Republican National Committee sent a letter to the Government Accountability Office demanding an audit of Obamas trips to battleground states. Now the RNC has no authority to tell the GAO what to investigate only a member of Congress can do that. Expect some Republican to make that request soon.
Conn Carroll is a senior editorial writer for The Washington Examiner. He can be reached at ccarroll@washingtonexaminer.com.
