Taxpayers Fronted $1.4 Billion For President Obama’s Comforts Last Year, According To New Book

President Barack Obama has received some criticism throughout his presidency over various vacations and “date-nights” with Michelle Obama, all at taxpayer expense. But exactly how much has he spent on personal pleasures and costly comforts? According to a new book, which questions presidential perks as a whole, the POTUS spent $1.4 billion last year alone.

Last year, while taxpayers spent $1.4 billion dollars on staffing, housing, flying and entertaining President Obama and his family, taxpayers across the pond only spent $57.8 million on the royal family, notes The Daily Caller. Slow down though, it’s not just President Obama who has taken advantage of the perks of the presidential office. In Presidential Perks Gone Royal, author Robert Keith Gray argues that Obama’s taxpayer-funded fun shows that such spending needs to be reined in some.

Promoting his book, and the idea of presidential recreation spending, Gray told the DC that the $1.4 billion spent last year is the “total cost of the presidency,” factoring in the “biggest staff in history at the highest wages ever,” and Air Force One “running with the frequency of a scheduled air line.”

“The most concerning thing, I think, is the use of taxpayer funds to actually abet his re-election,” Gray, who worked in the Eisenhower administration and for other Republican presidents, said.

Additionally, it is we in the press that have dropped the ball on keeping track of President Obama’s tab.

“The press has been so slow in picking up on this extraordinary increase in the president’s expenses,” Gray opines.

What do you think? Does President Obama spend too much on recreation and re-election, or as president, is he allowed to let his hair down a little on our dime when he needs a break? Sound off!