Fox News host Bill O’Reilly traded jabs with libertarian-leaning likewise host John Stossel on the White House administration’s jet-set lifestyle, honing in particular on the president and first lady and their family’s penchant for taking vacations at the taxpayers’ expense.
“This is the royal presidency,” Mr. Stossel said on Mr. O’Reilly’s Thursday evening “The O’Reilly Factor,” as reported by Mediaite.
Both saw the first family’s travel accounts as hitting “astronomical” levels. And Mr. Stossel joked the plane that carts them around costs so much because “they have to be in constant communication if they want to declare a nuclear war,” he said.
Mr. Stossel also admitted that the Obamas’ travels are “no worse than Bush or Clinton,” but that the high cost was nonetheless shocking.
“What upsets me more is when they were stopping White House tours ’cause they said sequester was so awful, Sasha and Malia did spring break on Paradise Island in the Bahamas with Secret Service,” Mr. Stossel said, Mediaite reported.
Mr. O’Reilly, meanwhile, noted that taxpayers were basically paying the costs for the president to campaign because they pick up the tab for all the fundraisers he attends.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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