Well, President Barack Hussein Obama and his daughters are back from their Christmas Vacation in Hawaii.

However, the First Lady is not with them. She’s not through partying, yet.

According to The New York Times,

When President Obama departed Hawaii Saturday evening he left behind one notable thing — his wife, Michelle.

Mrs. Obama will be staying on Oahu for several days to spend time with friends in advance of her upcoming 50th birthday. The extended visit to the Obamas’ annual tropical getaway is part of the president’s birthday gift to his wife, who turns 50 on Jan. 17.

On Saturday, before he left, Mr. and Mrs. Obama also went on a brief, 15-minute hike on the Na Pohaku O Hauwahine trail, before the president hit the golf course for a final time.

Mr. Obama’s daughters, Sasha and Malia, joined him on the Air Force One to return to Washington. The girls are scheduled to return school on Monday.

Before the Obamas arrived in Paradise, The Hawaiian Reporter crunched a few numbers…

The President and his friends pay for the private home accommodations that rent for $25,000 per week, however taxpayers – both federal and county – pick up the majority of the bill for the rest of the trip.

Michael Tasselmyer of the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, estimates the 18-hour roundtrip aboard Air Force One, which he said costs $179,750 per hour for flight and operation, will total $3,235,500 for the roundtrip. A Congressional Research Service report released in May 2012 matches that figure.

There are reports the President might also stop on the island of Maui, a 30-minute flight from Oahu, which would add additional expense.

The cost for USAF C-17 cargo aircraft that transports the Presidential limos, helicopters and other support equipment to Hawaii has never been disclosed, but the roundtrip flight time between Andrews Air Force Base and Hawaii is 21.5 hours, with estimated operating cost of $12,000 per hour. (Source: GAO report, updated by C-17 crew member).

The U.S. Marine Corps provides a presidential helicopter, along with pilots and support crews for the test flights, which travel on another C-17 flight. That is $258,000, not including costs for the 4-to-6-member crew’s per diem and hotel.

U.S. Secret Service, Navy Seals and Coast Guard rent homes along the canal and ocean for $250 per room per night, according to residents renting their homes. Real estate source said the delegation rents at least 7 homes in the area, and arrive ahead of the President, costing taxpayers more than $183,750 for the length of the visit.

White House staff who do not stay in Kailua secure hotel rooms at the posh Moana Surfrider, A Westin Resort & Spa on Waikiki Beach. Hotel rooms typically rent for $670 a night, but the hotel offers discounted government rates for about $255 per night, according to hotel public relations manager Diana Su. The hotel does not disclose information about The White House visit. However, estimating prices for room, as well as Transient Accommodation Tax and General Excise Tax, for about two dozen staff, totals more than $100,000.

The President is accompanied by 22 vehicles, whether he goes golfing and to a basketball game with friends at his Punahou alma mater or to body surf at Sandy Beach and local favorite restaurants such as Nobu’s and Buzz’s Steakhouse.

Honolulu Police are on special duty, paid $250,000 by city taxpayers, and another $10,000 is spent on around-the-clock ambulance detail.

There are several costs the White House annually refuses to release, citing security.

For example, The White House rents an entire floor of an office building in Kailua on the canal during the President’s stay

Security upgrades, such as bulletproof glass, and additional phone lines, are added to private homes, while existing security systems are disabled.

Rental cars and fuel for staff and security, as well as additional travel costs Secret Service and White House staff traveling ahead of the President, are kept secret.

The White House has not released expenses, citing security concerns. However, the most conservative estimate, based on what is known, for a 17-day vacation in Hawaii for the President and his family and staff and security is more than $4 million.

That’s right, boys and girls, the First Lady is throwing herself a Birthday Par-tay in Paradise…ON OUR DIIME.

Must be nice. My bride and I could only afford to celebrate our birthdays together (they’re one week apart) with a dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

But, I digress…

By the way, does anyone else find it both ironic and hypocritical that, just two weeks before this extravagant vacation taken by the First Family ON OUR DIME, that Obama was making a stump speech about “Income Inequality”?

Seems to me like he’s doing pretty well for himself.

Regarding the First Lady…

In the March 10th, 2008 edition of The New Yorker, a 10 page article titled The Other Obama,  covering the future First Lady was published.  Here’s an excerpt:

Obama begins with a broad assessment of life in America in 2008, and life is not good: we’re a divided country, we’re a country that is “just downright mean,” we are “guided by fear,” we’re a nation of cynics, sloths, and complacents. “We have become a nation of struggling folks who are barely making it every day,” she said, as heads bobbed in the pews. “Folks are just jammed up, and it’s gotten worse over my lifetime. And, doggone it, I’m young. Forty-four!”

On 1/11/12, on CBS News This Morning,Michelle Obama said,

You know, I guess it’s more interesting to imagine this conflicted situation here and a strong woman and a, you know, but that’s been an image that people have tried to paint of me since, you know, the day Barack announced, that I’m some angry black woman.

Gosh, ma’am. I don’t know where we could of gotten that idea about you from.

By the way, I hope you’re enjoying your Extended Hawaiian Vacation paid for by us cynics, sloths, and complacents.

In January 2009, before he signed the colossal failure that was the $787 billion stimulus bill into law, Barack Obama lectured America saying,

Everyone must sacrifice for the greater good… Everyone must have some skin in the game.

We foolishly thought that Obama was speaking about sacrificing for the good of the country. Little did we know that he was talking about the American Public’s financing of his Family’s Extravagant Lifestyle.

Until He Comes,

KJ