For more than 200 years, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington D.C., has been the house of the American people. That is, until it became the Obamas’ private family home last month with no active tours. Who is to blame, you may ask? According to the president himself, the Secret Service is largely at fault.
You do not need to get your eyes checked if you’re questioning whether or not you actually read that correctly. President Obama did in fact blame the Secret Service for closing the White House. Apparently, they thought the $74,000 a week that it took to run the White House tours was a bit excessive, and so they needed to make cutbacks. Last time I checked, their sole purpose was to keep the President and other key officials out of harm, not to do their jobs. What would our Founding Fathers think if they discovered that the Secret Service decided to become the fourth branch of government and exercise a power with no checks from any other branch?
Besides the Secret Service, Congress’ Republican members are also greatly at fault for not increasing the already massive budget. But is this really the solution to the closure of the White House for the public? Do we really need more spending if we already have $16 trillion in debt that’s growing by the second?
In fact, the National Republican Congressional Committee recently came out with [its new “waste list”](http://www.nrcc.org/thewastelist/), that declares every useless government-spending venture. Take the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Advanced Food Technology Project, for example. Last year, almost $1 million was spent in developing recipes for around 100 foods that can be served on a Mars mission. And to answer your next question, no, there aren’t any current missions to Mars planned, but when there is a trip planned in the 2030s, NASA’s projected date, our astronauts won’t go hungry!
Other examples on the list deal with whether or not male fruit flies are sexually attracted to young or old female fruit flies, the production of a musical on climate change and a federally-funded Star Wars party. Add a few more ridiculous federally-funded projects, and you have waste that, according to Sen. Tom Coburn’s “Wastebook 2012,” totals $19 billion for the 2012 fiscal year.
Finally, there is the extravagant lifestyle the Obama family is living, funded through our hard-earned, tax-paying dollars. In the past few months alone, the First Family, sans the president of course, has taken multiple vacations. While all hotel and personal expenses are paid for with the Obamas’ own money, the cost to get them to and from their destination on Air Force One is all through taxpayer dollars. According to a recent Congressional Research Service report, it costs on average $180,000 per hour to operate the private jet. For Christmas, the Obamas crossed the country for a trip to Hawaii — about a nine-hour flight each way. Given the per-hour operation costs, the family’s holiday getaway was a more than $3 million investment for the U.S.
I think that it is safe to say the government doesn’t understand one simple rule: Don’t spend money that you don’t have. Sure, it’s not a quick fix, but maybe if we stop spending money on things that aren’t completely essential for the general welfare of our nation, Obama’s private home will once again become the house of the American people. After all, it’s just a thought.