Mrs. Obama Living It Up At Taxpayer Expense

Michelle Obama has become a serial vacationer since her husband took office last year. Her latest taxpayer-funded sojourn is southern Spain, which is at least her 6th official vacation requiring travel with two others coming in short order.

"As her husband celebrated his 49th birthday in Chicago with Oprah, first lady Michelle Obama was halfway around the world, on vacation with her 9-year-old daughter, Sasha, in Spain. The two are traveling on what the White House has described as a four-day "private trip" with several Obama family friends along the country's ritzy southern coast.

Of course, no first lady's life is truly ever private, and already plenty of drama is swirling around Michelle Obama's foreign jaunt. Some critics have laid into the trip's price, while others are highlighting an apparent diplomatic gaffe between the United States and Spain."

Now the work of a First Lady is largely ceremonial, so her presence cannot be said to be required back in DC at all times. And it is generally good for politicians of all sorts to be engaged in any other pursuits (such as taking vacations) rather than remaining back in session and thinking of even more stupid laws and policies to impose on their fellow Americans.

It's curious that the media was much quicker to denounce former President Bush for taking cheap, folksy stay-cations at his ranch in Crawford, Texas than they are on the Obama's and their propensity for expensive foreign travel.

Irregardless of the media's opinion on the matter, when the country her husband nominally leads is engulfed in a major recession with high unemployment and is running a massive budget deficit, it would be wise to not exacerbate those issues by traveling to and fro with no apparent regard to the cost to the very same taxpayers that find themselves facing tough economic times largely due to government excess.