I came across this picture and started thinking. I know that it costs different amounts of money at different times, because he travels further than other times. But lets say he travels from D.C. to Florida everyday for a week. On average, how much would it costs taxpayers for that one day of travel?
I made a bet with a few folks on another forum that it’s in the seven digit range. What say you?
Nevermind.
A million dollars is a 7 digit number. $99,999 is a five digit number.
I think there’s also a C-5 Galaxy transport plane (or more than one?) used to transport the limousines and helicopter.
I don’t see why it wouldn’t be in the 7 figure range. However, it all depends on what you include in his travel expenses.
An Air Force One 747 is going to cost at least $10,000 an hour to operate and probably much more if you count all the careful testing before each flight, weapons countermeasures, government briefings, and overall prep work. There are a bunch other people that travel on the plane as well and you have to include the costs of screening them and accommodating as well.
As mentioned above, at least one cargo plane has to travel with Air Force One to carry the motorcade, a Marine One helicopter, and any other needed equipment.
I am not sure how many Secret Service agents need to be in place for travel but I would guess at least twenty and maybe much more for international travel.
That is just the necessities. Presidential travel will often include fancy parties and things.
It is all about what you count. Some people don’t have any problems blowing 100K on a mediocre wedding. I don’t think 7 figures is unreasonable when you start talking about giant super-outfitted airplanes, the military, the Secret Service, extreme caution ahead of time, a motorcade, and entertainment during the trip.
Not to mention, people’s salaries could be included in this workup.
If you’re talking about the marginal cost of a day of travel – i.e., how much it costs the taxpayers for the President to take an extra day-trip to Florida – I doubt that it’s seven figures. I would think that very few of the things involved in Presidential travel are paid for on a per-day or per-trip basis. Of course, we spend a lot of money on Air Force One, the presidential limousine, the secret service, and so forth, but I expect that the vast majority of that consists of fixed costs that are incurred regardless of how much the President travels (within reason).
If what you want to do is take total spending on Presidential travel and divide it by the number of days he travels, it’ll be hard to reach a consensus on that because, as others noted, there are lot of judgment calls about what to include.
When I was in Africa, President Clinton came for a visit. My spouse was the finance officer for the embassy at that time and told me that it was in the neighborhood of $1M/day, which includes all the local costs for him, his spouse, and all the strap-hangers (which numbered upwards of 400 persons). It would exclude the cost of flying him, all the staff, and the C-5s full of helicopters, armored vehicles, commo gear, etc. into the country and back again.
It costs Bush nothing at all. American taxpayers foot the bill.
Here’s a few more details on the President’s travel entourage from the New Zealand Herald:
Bush has a back-up or two for his jumbo
Wouldn’t a competent cost accountant rule out the salaries of all the government employees on the grounds that those salaries would be paid in any event? It would seem to me that the only additional costs would be fuel for the various airplanes, meals for the fellow travelers and lodging if the trip involved a night on the ground. Basically the same things I had to account for while traveling on business. If an overnight stay was not involved, I’d be surprised if the direct costs exceeded a million dollars for a trip from DC to Florida.
Even presidents pay taxes.
