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Can I Just Keep the Cash Instead? - Obama Family Vacations Cost Over $85 Million

© AP Photo / Jacquelyn MartinPresident Barack Obama eats shave ice during the Obama family's December 2014 vacation in Hawaii.
President Barack Obama eats shave ice during the Obama family's December 2014 vacation in Hawaii. - Sputnik International
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During US President Barack Obama's two terms in office the First Family has cost the US taxpayer over $85 million in traveling and vacation expenses, Judicial Watch revealed Monday.

The expenses cover security, flights and accommodation for staff but do not include the price of prepositioning military assets in areas where a US President is residing.

In this photo, reviewed by the US Military, a guard leans on a fencepost as a Guantanamo detainee, left, jogs inside the exercise yard at Camp 5 detention center, the U.S. Naval Base, in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, January 21, 2009 - Sputnik International
'Disgrace': Obama Calls Guantanamo Bay Prison Waste of Money
According to the conservative watchdog group, in 2015 alone the Obamas cost almost $5 million for their annual family trip to Hawaii, including about $1.2 million spent on a round-the-clock Secret Service detail.

Records obtained by Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act request show that representatives of the Secret Service arrived two days before the First Family. Although the annual trip to Hawaii, Obama's birthplace, officially lasted 17 days, from December 18, 2015, to January 3, 2016, the Secret Service accommodation bill was for 19 nights, beginning December 16. That's where most of the money, approximately $1 million, went.

The agency also paid $165,893.88 for an eye-opening 103 cars rented from Avis, Alamo, and Hertz, among other expenses. Air and rail expenses totaled $67,964.16.

"Unnecessary presidential travel for fundraising and luxury vacations on the taxpayers' dime would be a good target for reform for the incoming Trump administration," Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement obtained by LawNewz.com.

The reported $85 million is not a final number, as current estimates do not include Obama family expenses for this year's Christmas vacation.    

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