The Tunnel Of Obama, Or Maybe Obama’s India Trip Is Costing $200 Million A Day, After All

You’ve probably heard the scuttlebutt: an Indian official stated that Obama’s visit was going to cost $200 million a day (for ten days = $2 BILLION).

Michelle Malkin’s blog offered this take:

Obama to See India on $200 Million a Day
By Doug Powers  •  November 2, 2010 01:53 PM
**Written by Doug Powers

Seemingly every election day estimate predicting increasingly bad news for Democrats is met by an exponential rise in the cost to taxpayers for President Obama’s “I’m outta here” world tour. Coincidence?

Mumbai: The US would be spending a whopping $200 million (Rs. 900 crore approx) per day on President Barack Obama’s visit to the city.

“The huge amount of around $200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit,” a top official of the Maharashtra Government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit said.

About 3,000 people including Secret Service agents, US government officials and journalists would accompany the President. Several officials from the White House and US security agencies are already here for the past one week with helicopters, a ship and high-end security instruments.

And if the Democrats lose the Senate, expect another $50 million in room service tabs alone, Tea Party ingrates.

To put it in perspective, $200 million is enough money to buy a pair of Lanvin sneakers for over 370,000 Indians.

The president’s “carbon footprint felt ’round the world” tour will also utilize at least 40 aircraft, or as Al Gore calls it, “Wednesday.”

The mainstream media was quick to jump all over this story (unlike, say, the falsehood Obama spread that John McCain owned seven homes when in fact he didn’t actually own any homes).

Let’s see.  Forty aircraft.  Six armored cars.  “The biggest trip ever by a US president.” Then there’s the 34 U.S. Navy warships dedicated to Obama’s convenience, the 3,000 attendants traveling with their emperor, the entire Taj Mahal booked.

And lets not forget the palm trees and all the coconuts.

You almost want to sing it to sing to “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and add, “five golden rings!”

It all sounds like “Let them eat cake” on massive loads of steroids to me.

Here’s my personal favorite of sheer extravagance: “the tunnel of Obama.”  Complete with air conditioning:

Tunnel for Obama near Mani Bhavan
Published: Thursday, Nov 4, 2010, 1:59 IST
By Pandurang Mhaske | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA

It could give a sense of superior American organisation, or be an indicator of a deep-set persecution complex. It could also be a manifestation of Uncle Sam’s penchant for a show of strength.

The matter pertains to US president Barack Obama’s planned visit to Mani Bhavan —the Gandhi museum — on November 6, soon after he reaches Mumbai. On Monday, US secret agents visited the museum to plan Obama’s security detail.

They were accompanied by officers of Mumbai Police and civic officials of the D ward (where Mani Bhavan is located). While inspecting the route and the buildings lining up the route to the museum, the Americans detected a skyscraper near Peddar road and also found the area to be highly populated.

Since it is difficult to monitor such a congested area, they came up with a quick solution which left the Indians accompanying them amazed: A bomb-proof over-ground tunnel — to be installed by US military engineers in just an hour.

The tunnel would be a kilometre long and measure 12ft by 12ft — enough to let Obama’s cavalcade pass through. The tunnel would be centrally air-conditioned, fitted with close-circuit television cameras, and will be heavily guarded at every point, including, of course, its entry and exit.

Details about when exactly the tunnel would be made were not forthcoming. But officials said that the structure would be dismantled immediately after Obama leaves the area.

Now, one might think, “Damn, that’s a lot of incredibly expensive work to protect the president for a meaningless visit to a museum.  Maybe we should cancel that part of the itinerary.”

But no.  This is Barack Obama, who has grown government that took more than 200 years to get this monstrous by an eye-popping 28% in just two short years.  This is the guy who has spent trillions of dollars in debt-fueled spending.  This is the guy for whom your money doesn’t matter.

So fine.  It costs a gazillion dollars for Obama to see a museum.  But it’s only your money.

I don’t know how much this trip to India is costing the taxpayers (or more precisely, the children’s children’s children’s children of the taxpayers).  But I do know that the cost means absolutely nothing to Barry Hussein.

Tags: $2 billion, $200 million a day, 3000 guests, 34 warships, 40 aircraft, India, Navy, Obama, six armored cars, Taj Mahal, Trip, visit