Speaking at the CPAC conference on Saturday, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann came up with a relatively new line of attack on Pres. Obama. The Obamas are living too high in the White House on your tax dollars with public employees to walk their dog while disabled veterans can't even get a White House tour. Here's the quote:
“A new book is out talking about the perks and the excess of the $1.4-billion-a-year presidency that we’re paying for. And this is a lifestyle that is one of excess. Now we find out that there are five chefs on Air Force One. There are two projectionists who operate the White House movie theater. They regularly sleep at the White House in order to be readily available in case the first family wants a really, really late show. And I don’t mean to be petty here, but can’t they just push the play button? We are also the ones who are paying for someone to walk the president’s dog, paying for someone to walk the president’s dog? Now, why are we doing that when we can’t even get a disabled veteran into the White House for a White House tour? That isn’t caring!”
Washington Post "Fact-Checker" Glenn Kessler put the statement under the microscope. There is indeed a recently published book by a Republican lobbyist that calls Obama "The $1.4 Billion Man" (that's the title). Kessler finds that more than half of the budget that's attributed to the White House goes for Secret Service and, to run the figure up that high you have to count policy staff that works at the White House. Yes, the White House groundskeeper helps take care of the Obama's dog, just as the same guy has done for every presidential dog since Richard Nixon's Irish Setter, King Timahoe. Kessler notes that the annual cost of operating the White House during the tenure of George W. Bush was $1.6 billion.
He gives Bachmann's statement four pinocchios, his lowest rating.
Okay, I know what you're thinking. What kind of a name is King Timahoe? Well, Timahoe is a village in Ireland's County Laois. Yes, but what about the Constitutional provision (Article I, Sec 9. Clause 8) that prohibits the United States from granting any title of nobility? Nixon would probably have been impeached for this, but he resigned first.