Is there a point here?
Posted 30 May 2009 at 5:02 pm
Obamas head to NYC for a night on the town; GOP objects
Okay, so the short of it is that Barack and Michelle Obama headed up to New York City on Saturday (whether that’s today or not, I can’t tell from the article) to have some fun. The RNC complained, essentially saying that Obama shouldn’t be out on the town while the automakers face bankruptcy.
I say, what’s the big deal? Assuming that they’re not frivolously spending taxpayer money on their trip, and instead are picking up the tab themselves*, this should actually be considered a good thing. Increased consumption is what will eventually bring the economy back out of the depths, and every little bit helps. Besides, even the President should be allowed to have some fun every once in a while.
There are a lot of things one might choose to give Obama a hard time about. This probably isn’t one of them.
* There are a lot of hairs to split in the matter of whether or not this was on the taxpayers’ dime, and whether these costs would have been incurred anyway even if they’d stayed in DC. For example, I would expect them to pay for their own show tickets, but does dinner in NYC cost more than the government would pay for the White House staff to fix dinner for them? I don’t know. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt as long as they don’t make a habit of it.