Tasine Loc: Southwest US

('Approximately 136 hotel rooms for 893 room nights.')
Vice President Biden and his entourage spent a little time in London in early February during his first foreign trip of the second term of the Obama administration. A document released today revealed that the cost of lodging in London alone was close to half a million dollars. The contract was awarded on January 30, 2013 to the Hyatt Regency London for a total of $459,388.65.

Due to obvious security concerns, such contracts are not open to the competitive bidding normally required on government contracts. The accompanying document justifying the "sole source" contract notes that the vice president's group required "approximately 136 hotel rooms for 893 room nights." Based on these figures and the total contract price, each hotel room at the five star hotel cost the U.S. government about $500 per night.:thumbdown:

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/biden-pays-45938865-hotel-bill_708795.html

L.E. Liesner Loc: New Mexico

It is apparent that the sequester hasn't stopped the high living of our bureaucrats. And of course the spending continues to go on. The priorities of this government are as backwards as their policies. Can you imagine spending 150 million to upgrade Gitmo, guess they don't have High Definition TV and room service.

Tasine Loc: Southwest US

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Personally, I believe the democrats' goal is to make "reduced spending" as painful for the American people as is possible. They believe, probably correctly so, that people will start yelling to stop the spending cuts. The only cuts they will make are those that affect the taxpayers negatively while enhancing the non-taxpaying members of their v**er base.

D********g, filthy bunch of scum within our government. Representative governments will fail as soon as the politician knows he can stay in power by handing out goodies to enough people. Put another way, as soon as v**ers know they can v**e themselves handouts.

Navysnipe Loc: Old West

Its a good thing the sequester kicked in, otherwise the bill might have been 45 million dollars.

InfinityLee

sounds suspiciously similar to the alleged 1/2 million dollar cost for the stay in Paris on the same trip. This of course was reported by Fox news. If this is true, which I wonder about, is this simply the going rate? Second, if this was the charge, perhaps it should be shame on the companies for gouging the government to line their corporate pockets. Kinda like, youi know, charging the military (the government) $500.00 for a toilet set.

I think of the 139 people on the trip, some were security and some were media and I think some of the travelling entities, the press, reimburse the government for their costs. Not sure on that, but I think I read that somewhere when investigating a similar allegation that turned out to be be false. It was one of those ever so credible allegations made by Michelle Bachmann, that bastion of t***h and reliability.

rschwank

When will Our Government Bureaucrats stop living out of control on the backs of American Taxpayers. This is totally ridiculous and why was Biden in Paris? Government Bureaucrats want the luxury for themselves, do not care about the Country or the Citizens. As long as they can collect Big Money, Expensive Pension, and enjoy Good Health Care - why should they care about the average wage earner who pays for their luxeries? Really. If Congress or any of these Bureaucrats wanted to help the country, they would put a stop to all this nonsense. Happily, I believe there are a few New Senators and Representatives who are trying to help, but they are v**ed down by the Bureaucrats who have been in Washington DC forever and most have never had a normal, private job. They have no idea what real life if about. I am beginning to believe that the only way to wake up the government is for Every Citizen, Every Small Business, etc. to Refuse to pay any more taxes until the Government is under control. Do you think they might get the message then??

Tasine Loc: Southwest US

When will Our Government Bureaucrats stop living out of control on the backs of American Taxpayers. This is totally ridiculous and why was Biden in Paris? Government Bureaucrats want the luxury for themselves, do not care about the Country or the Citizens. As long as they can collect Big Money, Expensive Pension, and enjoy Good Health Care - why should they care about the average wage earner who pays for their luxeries? Really. If Congress or any of these Bureaucrats wanted to help the country, they would put a stop to all this nonsense. Happily, I believe there are a few New Senators and Representatives who are trying to help, but they are v**ed down by the Bureaucrats who have been in Washington DC forever and most have never had a normal, private job. They have no idea what real life if about. I am beginning to believe that the only way to wake up the government is for Every Citizen, Every Small Business, etc. to Refuse to pay any more taxes until the Government is under control. Do you think they might get the message then??[/quote]
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Know what I think? I think that if the taxpayers went on strike, Obama's scummy street gang pals would see to it that we were imprisoned, all our property confiscated, and then they would have won the battle. The beauty, then, however,would be that for the first time in history they would be supporting us, rather than us supporting them. There's some beautiful irony in that, wouldn't you say? Oh, and in addition to a roof over our heads, 3 square meals a day, I'd be willing to bet our health care would be better than if we were free citizens who had to rely on Obamacare. ;-)

oldroy Loc: Western Kansas (No longer in hiding)

oldroy Loc: Western Kansas (No longer in hiding)

Sorry. I just posted a different link with some suggestions that the Daily Mail has a thing that shows Biden shaking hands with the heads of state of England and France. Very expensive photo ops, it seems to me.

In talking about the cost of this trip nobody mentioned the cost of air travel when we know that Air Force One takes $181,000 per hour. That has to be added in and it appears it would be pretty close to $1 million just to fly that small army there.