Taxpayers Paid $70,000 For Obama's Date Night

The Daily Mail:

...that's for three private jets, two helicopter rides, extra planes for security and closing roads for motorcade

It was a campaign pledge that Barack Obama didn't dare break - a promise to take his wife out for dinner and a show once the election was over.

So on the weekend he booked a babysitter, asked Michelle to put on a little black dress and swept her off for a date.

The President picked up the tab for a meal at a low-key restaurant, Blue Hill, that specialises in locally grown dishes.

He had also paid £60 apiece for two tickets to Joe Turner's Come And Gone, a play about a man coming to terms with the history of slavery.

As a little extra, he shelled out for two martinis to toast his first five months in the White House.

Overall, not too extravagant, and few would begrudge the hard-working couple such a treat.

Unfortunately, there were one or two other bills to settle at the end of the night.

The romantic jaunt is estimated to have cost the taxpayer more than £45,000 in transport and security costs - because the date was in New York.

The President used three planes, one to carry the couple and two to ferry aides and reporters all the way from Washington.

The cost of each flight was thought to be nearly £15,000.

The bill was pushed even higher with the use of two helicopters, one to take the Obamas to catch their plane in Washington and another to zip the party into Manhattan from JFK airport.

Police also shut down New York streets for the motorcade to pass through so they could get to their date on time.

L15,000 translates to about $70,000USD--in other words Barry has no shame. None at all. We're in the worse economic crisis this country has seen in decades, thousands of people are losing their jobs every week, G.M. just filed for bankruptcy and will be laying off droves of workers in the process and the Teleprompter-in-Chief is busy stifling taxpayers just so he can get some.

Priceless!