Have you heard that President Obama is going to India for ten days at a cost of $2 BILLION dollars! That's $200 million a day! Unbelievable!Of course it is. Because it's not true.
Who's been repeating this outlandishly bizarre story? The usual suspects: Drudge, Fox, Michele Bachmann, rightwing AM radio blowhards, etc.
Where did it begin? An unnamed source.
Any truth to the price tag? None whatsoever.
The Seattle Times and AP report, "Among the dubious claims: Obama will be accompanied by 3,000 guests, 34 warships (including an aircraft carrier) and 40 planes, including two Marine One helicopters that will be dismantled, flown overseas and reconstructed there to fly the president and his family around India. The Obamas reportedly booked the entire Taj Mahal Palace hotel for their entourage."
A Pentagon spokesman laughed off the outlandish claim.
"I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd this notion that somehow we were deploying 10 percent of the Navy ... in support of the president's trip to Asia," he said Thursday at a Pentagon briefing. "That's just comical. Nothing close to that is being done."
Even the very conservative Wall Street Journal -- owned by none other than Rupert Murdock -- said, "The report is demonstrably incorrect. It says the White House had blocked off the entire Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai – it hasn’t – and that the press traveling with Mr. Obama will be staying there. We won’t. Besides, the press pays its own way at considerable cost to the media outlets, not the U.S. taxpayer."
For the record, American presidents' trips generally cost between $10 million and $40 million (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013350380_tripcost05.html), for a typical 10-day trip.
Another example of the Republican Hate Machine cranking out the lies.
By the way, the purpose of the trip is to open up more markets for trade with the US. Shouldn't Republicans be thrilled over that? Not if President Obama is the one who accomplishes it.
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