Judicial Watch: President Obama's spring golf outings were a bit pricey ($4.4 million)

Brett T. | 7:53 PM on October 15, 2015

Twitter is full of talk about burn rates and such today as presidential candidates release the results of their fundraising efforts. Socialist Bernie Sanders has taken in a huge amount of money, but it’s a necessary evil so he can pursue his dream of turning America into another Denmark, Sweden or Norway.

.@BernieSanders raised $26.2 million in 3rdQ, has $27.1 million in the bank.https://t.co/OMuAcRGIAu

— Mike Memoli (@mikememoli) October 15, 2015

For the winner, it’s all worth it in the end as you never have to think about burn rates again. Author Brad Thor thought President Obama’s expenditures on golf and fundraising this spring were better reported with an exclamation point.

https://twitter.com/BradThor/status/654784718039216129

That figure comes from documents obtained from the U.S. Department of the Air Force by Judicial Watch. The numbers are for February and March only and do not include the cost of security, as the Secret Service has not yet responded to FOIA requests by Judicial Watch. We’ve lost track of how many rounds of golf the president has played, but we know his outing with Bill Clinton on Martha’s Vineyard in August was No. 246.

Judicial Watch breaks down the numbers by trip:

Obama’s February 14, 2015, golf outing to Palm Springs required a five-hour flight, costing taxpayers a total of $1,031,685.
Transportation for Obama’s February 19 day trip to Chicago cost taxpayers $619,011.00.
Transportation for Obama’s March 2015 fundraising trip to Los Angeles cost taxpayers $1,980,835.20.
Obama’s March 28, 2015, golf outing to Palm city required a 3.9-hour flight, costing taxpayers $804,870.30.

Judicial Watch notes that the Obamas’ largest travel expenditure so far has been the family’s $15.8 million flight to Africa and Honolulu, followed by “Michelle Obama’s side-trip to Dublin, Ireland, during the 2013 G-8 conference in Belfast, when she and her entourage booked 30 rooms at the five-star Shelbourne Hotel, with the first lady staying in the 1500 square-foot Princess Grace suite at a cost of $3,500 a night. The total cost to taxpayers for the Obamas’ Ireland trip was $7,921,638.66.”