First Family Elect's Hotel Stay

Anybody know if this is accurate??? Pretty outrageous, if so .... Could just about pay off my mortgage... Shoot they can afford to pay this themselves w/ their non-presidential salary the past couple of years ... Ridiculous! Change? They're not even in office yet....

Received this from a friend...
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First Family Hotel Stay

As everyone knows, President-elect Obama and his family are moving from Chicago this weekend to Washington, and will be staying at a hotel until the inauguration on January 20th. That would be a total of 16 nights before they spend their first night in the White House.

According to the news reports, this is the hotel they will be calling home for those sixteen nights and seventeen days before the inauguration: the very hoity-toity, five-star property, the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, DC. Check 'em out here: Washington DC - Hay-Adams Hotel. Perhaps the Holiday Inn was booked up already.

Being in the tour business, I was curious just what these rooms go for, and just what we will be spending to put up the new first family (and their entire entourage) for these two and a half weeks. The property is sold out for the time that the Obamas will be there - all 145 rooms and 20 suites - so I went to the following month and got the off-season (lowest) rate for the top-of-the-line suite, where no doubt the Obamas will be staying. The one-bedroom luxury suite with a view of Lafayette Park goes for $3,200.00 per night!! Yes, you read that right - three thousand two hundred dollars. And unless the kids will be sleeping in their bed for sixteen nights, you've gotta add the cost of a second room for the girls, too. Hypothetically, let's put them up in the cheapest two-bed room, which goes for $395.00 per night! So now we're up to $3,595.00 per night x 16 nights, which is $57,520 for sixteen nights, plus room tax (14.5% at this property) for another $8,340.00. That's a total of $65,860.00 just for the rooms.

But wait - there's more! They're probably gonna want to eat while they're there. Click on the "Dining" link on the hotel's web site. This is fun. The Lafayette is their breakfast-lunch-dinner dining room. Room service and private dining would be more, so this is a conservative estimate of their meals for two and a half weeks. Check out the menus. A bowl of corn flakes with a sliced banana for the girls is $9.50. Say you want just a little continental breakfast (juice, rolls, coffee)? That'll run you $18.00. An omelet? Just $16.00, plus an additional $5.50 for a side of bacon or potatoes. Now let's go to the lunch menu. Say you want just a burger and fries? That'll run you $27.00, plus your beverage. And dinner? OMG! Let's start with a bowl of soup du jour for $9.00, and then enjoy a little Sauteed Dover Sole for another $45.00! And for those couple of Sundays that they'll be spending there, how 'bout a little Sunday brunch for $65.00 per person. And remember to add tax and tip to these meals for not only the first family, but their entire entourage. For sixteen nights and seventeen days.

Makes my hair hurt to even think about what this is costing the American taxpayer, often the unemployed American taxpayer, who may be enjoying their peanut butter and jelly lunches and meatloaf dinners in their homes that are possibly "justthisclose" to foreclosure. But in American politics, nothing is too good for our first family, I suppose, regardless of where the rest of the country is, financially.

God bless America.