美国国家公共电台 NPR Trump's Travel Costs Add Up, Setting Him On Path To Outspend Obama

 

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

The president is again spending the weekend at his Palm Beach Resort, Mar-a-Lago. The cost of moving a president and presidential staff around each year easily runs into the millions of dollars. And this president is on track to run up a bigger bill than any of his predecessors². NPR's Jim Zarroli reports.

JIM ZARROLI, BYLINE³: Ordinary mortals can fly from Washington to Florida for $200 or $300 if they book in advance. For the president, it costs a little more than that. How much more is something the conservative group Judicial⁴ Watch has been keeping track of for years. A few years ago, the group's president, Tom Fitton, began to wonder how much one of President Obama's trips cost.

TOM FITTON: He made a big show of taking his wife up to New York on a date night. And I thought to myself, well, that sounds like a pretty darn expensive date night knowing what it costs to move a president around.

ZARROLI: The Obamas took a small plane, so press reports said the cost of the trip was relatively⁵ low, around $25,000. Since then, Judicial Watch has been filing Freedom of Information requests to nail down the cost of presidential travel. Fitton calculates that flying on the Air Force One 747 costs about $140,000 per flying hour. He says when Secret Service costs are included, a weekend in Palm Beach sets the government back about $1 million.

FITTON: It's a snapshot cost in the sense that there are other costs, obviously, involved that we could get, but the government just doesn't want to give it to us or they keep secret for good reason.

ZARROLI: Other estimates are higher. The Government Accountability Office did a report a few years ago putting the cost of one of Obama's 2013 trips at more than $3.5 million. But that was a three-legged journey involving a lot more flight time. Whatever the cost, it seems likely that President Trump⁶'s travel expenses will easily dwarf⁷ those of his predecessor¹. Trump regularly travels from Washington to his properties in New York, New Jersey⁸ and especially Florida.

(SOUNDBITE OF MONTAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: After another tough week, the president is headed for his happy place - Palm Beach.

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: He has been there the past three weekends in a row.

ZARROLI: Presidential travel regularly becomes fodder⁹ for political attacks. Republicans complained about Obama's trips to Hawaii and Africa, and now it's Democrats¹⁰' turn. Congressman¹¹ Ruben Gallego of Arizona was 1 of 4 members of Congress who recently wrote to the Pentagon about the cost of Trump's weekend trips.

RUBEN GALLEGO: He's going to supersede¹² President Obama's travel all eight years within a year, which is just absolutely ridiculous.

ZARROLI: A million dollars for a weekend trip isn't all that much money compared to the annual Pentagon budget, which is nearly $600 billion. But Gallego says that's not the point.

GALLEGO: We've had to stop hiring child care specialists in child care day centers on Army bases because the president has done a hiring freeze. If the president wants to ask the country to sacrifice and the other government entities¹³ (ph) to sacrifice, then he should be doing the same.

ZARROLI: Gallego says he signed the letter because Americans deserve to know how much the president's trips are costing them. So far, at least, he hasn't received a reply. Jim Zarroli, NPR News, New York.

1 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

2 predecessors   

n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身

参考例句：

• The new government set about dismantling their predecessors' legislation. 新政府正着手废除其前任所制定的法律。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Will new plan be any more acceptable than its predecessors? 新计划比原先的计划更能令人满意吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 judicial   

adj.司法的，法庭的，审判的，明断的，公正的

参考例句：

• He is a man with a judicial mind.他是个公正的人。
• Tom takes judicial proceedings against his father.汤姆对他的父亲正式提出诉讼。

5 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 dwarf   

n.矮子，侏儒，矮小的动植物；vt.使…矮小

参考例句：

• The dwarf's long arms were not proportional to his height.那侏儒的长臂与他的身高不成比例。
• The dwarf shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. 矮子耸耸肩膀，摇摇头。

8 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

9 fodder   

n.草料；炮灰

参考例句：

• Grass mowed and cured for use as fodder.割下来晒干用作饲料的草。
• Guaranteed salt intake, no matter which normal fodder.不管是那一种正常的草料，保证盐的摄取。

10 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

12 supersede   

v.替代；充任

参考例句：

• We must supersede old machines by new ones.我们必须以新机器取代旧机器。
• The use of robots will someday supersede manual labor.机器人的使用有一天会取代人力。

13 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。