As President Obama embarks Thursday on a three-day Democratic fundraising trip to California, the White House adamantly refuses to to disclose the cost of presidential political travel or how it calculates reimbursements to the government, CBS News said.
“As in other administrations, we follow all rules and regulations to ensure that the DNC or other relevant political committee pays what is required for the president to travel to political events,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.
The White House denied the news network’s repeated requests for a breakdown of the costs and an explanation and specific examples of how the administration calculates how much is paid by taxpayers and how much must be reimbursed to the government by the Democratic National Committee or others.
The information wouldn’t jeopardize national security or endanger the president. Instead, the details would simply be embarrassing and invite criticism, which Mr. Obama already has plenty to these days.
Mr. Schultz correctly cited precedent for withholding the information, with White Houses going back to at least the Clinton administration keeping those details under wraps.
Mr. Obama, however, vowed to make his administration “the most transparent in history.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.