NYC Letter: Joe On The Job XXVI -- "New Sheriff In Town"

Day 1,232 of CHOPE
D-minus 224 Days

They don't get us, they don't get who we are. They don't understand, it seems to me. They're not bad, they just don't get it.

Joe "Marie Antoinette" Biden,
VP and empath, bemoaning the Republican
"ungettability" of the working class
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio May 16, 2012 (Examiner/YouTube)

Mr. Biden gets it. [Pause.] As much of it as he can.

First, a reminder.

You can't get corporate jets...on the taxpayers' dime. (Applause.) There's got to be some accountability and some responsibility, and that's something that I intend to impose as President of the United States. (Applause.)

Mr. Obama,
establishing his administration's principles
of oversight for the taxpayers' dime
ELKHART, Indiana February 9, 2009 (White House)

BIDEN SPENDS $1 MILLION ANNUALLY
FOR WEEKEND TRIPS

WASHINGTON June 4, 2012 (Newsmax) - Last June, President Obama appointed Vice President Joe Biden to root out wasteful government spending. But behind the scenes, it’s a different matter.

Every Friday, Biden takes a helicopter designated as Marine Two from the vice president’s residence to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and then hops on Air Force Two to fly back to his home in Delaware. At the end of the weekend, he returns on Air Force Two, usually a Boeing C-32.

During warm weather, Biden regularly returns to Andrews on the airplane on Saturdays to play golf at the Air Force base with President Obama. After the golf game, he flies back to Delaware and returns to Washington on the plane on Sunday evening — all at taxpayer expense.

The cost of flying Air Force Two is $22,000 an hour, so each half-hour trip to or from Delaware costs about $10,000. Each golf game costs taxpayers $20,000. At that rate, the annual cost to taxpayers of Biden’s weekend trips is well over $1 million.

... Biden’s press office had no immediate comment.

... As a U.S. senator, Biden was proud of the fact that he commuted daily by train from his home in Delaware to Washington during the week. Amtrak named the newly renovated Wilmington station the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. Railroad Station. But after taking office as vice president, a Secret Service agent says Biden began the pattern of commuting on Air Force Two on weekends, costing taxpayers close to $4 million so far.

... Last June 13, Obama placed Biden in charge of a Campaign to Cut Waste, which will "hunt down and eliminate misspent tax dollars in every agency and department across the federal government," according to the White House website.

... Asked if President Obama thinks these costs are appropriate, why he has not questioned Biden flying to play golf with him at a cost of $20,000 per game, and in view of these costs of $1 million a year for weekend trips, whether the vice president should no longer be in charge of cutting government waste, the president’s press office had no immediate comment.

In an email, Biden told supporters that he was the "new sheriff in town". He said that "particularly at a time when we’re facing tough decisions about reducing our deficit, it’s a no-brainer to stop spending taxpayer dollars on things that benefit nobody."

There certainly are perks attending the job of VP, though not everything characterized in the above story is a perk. Secret Service details are necessities and the golf games are at Mr. Obama's beck, nolens volens. However, Mr. Biden presents himself as one of the middle-class ("They don't get us, they don't get who we are."), an empathic politician fighting for the working stiff.

Messrs. Obama and Biden hide behind "tax the rich" rhetoric, yet conspicuously spend the taxpayers' money to live the high life while in office. [Pause.] They can't have it both ways. That they try is evidence that "they don't get us, they don't get who we are".

We often wonder why Democrats, the purported party of the working class, can't manage a little moderation in keeping with the mood and condition of the country for the short tenure of high office. Mr. Obama constantly harps on today's hard times but always seems to be on his way to the links or celebrity one-percenter galas, not the usual preserves of the working class.

Mr. Bush by comparison led a subdued presidency. He raised more money with half the effort of today's money-trotting Mr. Obama and without turning the Lincoln Bedroom into a Motel 6 ATM.

CHOPE.

Working class poseurs.