I need the facts. Who paid for that dress?
Yes the one she wore to the state dinner for the French president.
It seems to have angered many people that she wore and expensive ball gown to a formal dinner. Why? One person told me that it was paid for with tax money. I can’t find a site that gives me the facts.
Do you know?
Short of it being given or loaned to her, it’s probably an argument not worth getting into. Think about it. If you can prove that she bought it with ‘her own money’ (which I assume would be Barack Obama’s Salary), the person is still going to argue that his salary is tax money and therefore the dress is paid for with tax money…right.
Even if it was paid with tax dollars for the White House, it would have been out of a discretionary fund for entertainment and the like. So that’s what that money is allocated for. Unless she bought it using Veterans Administration funds or something, I fail to see the point of the outrage (well, beyond partisan reasons, natch).
Because Mrs. Obama is black and her buying a dress with tax money (no matter how many steps occur between the person paying taxes and Mrs. Obama paying for the dress) is just high-end welfare, after all…
Well, if she’s gonna be a welfare queen she might as well dress the part.
And if it was given or loaned to her*, she may not get to keep it when the Obama’s leave the White House.
There is a federal office** that decides if gifts given to the President & his family are personal gifts that they get to keep, or gifts given to them as representatives of our country, that are the property of the country and stay in the White House when they leave. Or sometimes the gifts go to other parts of the government. For example, I believe the Smithsonian has a big exhibit of dresses worn by First Ladies over the years.
- That’s a common practice for fashion designers – they give or loan things to celebrities who wear them at public occasions. See many of the dresses & jewels worn at the Oscars, or the races at Ascot, for example. The magazine coverage generally mentions the designer of these items, so they get free publicity from their donation.
** As I recall, this was set up when one President leaving the White House took with him a whole lot of such gifts, and later sold them. I think it was Nixon.
Why is Mrs. Obama the only one who gets criticism over dressing for a formal state dinner? Mrs. Reagan didn’t do it? Mrs. Bush (either one of them) didn’t do it?
And now a Republican Congressman has introduced a bill requiring the White House to serve school lunches at formal state dinners.
What difference would that make. If they were given to her, whether she gets to keep them or not, that’s about the only way (that I can quickly think of) that they wouldn’t have been bought with ‘tax money’.
I heard it was made from thread spun from aborted fetuses. Had you heard that?
That’s hilarious, as is the OP’s mention that people were angry that the First Lady wore a formal dress to a formal dinner. I’m not sure what they think she should have worn.
If someone makes the argument that the Obamas are spending more money on entertainment or that they are getting more valuable items given to them that they can keep than other Presidents, tell this to that person, “How much did the second Bush spend on entertainment? How much did Clinton spend on entertainment? How much did the first Bush spend on entertainment? How much did Reagan spend on entertainment? And so on. How valuable were the items that the second Bush kept? How valuable were the items that Clinton kept? How valuable were the items that the first Bush kept? How valuable were the items that Reagan kept? And so on.” If the person answers, as I suspect is likely, that they have no idea, then tell them to find out and get back to you. Otherwise they are just wasting your time. If they actually have an answer to those questions, you’ve got the beginning of a real discussion.
So anyone have any actual factual information regarding the OP’s question?
Michelle apparently doesn’t get a clothing allowance as part of her Office. Since the dress is supposedly 10k, I kinda doubt she paid for it out of pocket (the Obama’s make 400k a year, which is good money, but probably not good enough that they’d be blowing 10k on a single nights evening wear).
So the designer donating or loaning it seems like a more likely answer.
She should have worn shorts and a T shirt, so they can criticize her for not dressing for a formal state dinner.
Not even then.
If they were given to her, the designer classified that as either donations or advertising, and deducted it from his business taxes. So it still comes out of tax funds.
I am much more interested in the number & size of the vacations he is taking & the numbers he takes on trips that seem to be way more than other presidents.
“Much more interested” is really not much because anything they (First Lady & President) do is not news worth. They are all crooks and out for only themselves. {/rant]
Sackcloth and ashes. After all, state dinners aren’t for the likes of those people.
Not even close.
For most of the people who are “concerned” about the dress, and about the First Family’s vacations and crap like that, they’d be much more comfortable seeing the President in a waiter’s uniform and the first lady in a maid’s. And GusNSpot, you’ve just completely destroyed whatever goodwill I might have had toward you. Just FYI. That position is a Fox News/rightwing nutjob position that’s been debunked numerous times but still keeps coming up because ignorant people would rather stay ignorant than actually look up facts.