President Obama’s Immigration Speech Cost Taxpayers $527 per Word

by Whitney Pitcher

Yesterday, a study from the publicly funded University of Minnesota was released noting that Governor Sarah Palin was paid $15.85 per word during her time as a FoxNews contributor. Despite all of Governor Palin’s purported irrelevancy, this study generated stories at USA Today, the Washington Post, The New York Times, Yahoo! News, and Politico, among numerous other outlets.

Meanwhile, just today, President Obama flew from Washington D.C. to Las Vegas to give a speech on immigration reform. Per the Weekly Standard, his trip cost taxpayers a $1.6 million or $182,000 per hour of flight on Air Force One. According to the transcript at the Chicago Sun Times, President Obama’s immigration speech was 3,079 words and applause instances, meaning that President Obama’s speech cost the taxpayers just under $520 per word and applause. Including the instances of applause is being generous to the President, as if those weren’t included, his speech would have cost taxpayers $527 per word. The transcript also notes that President Obama’s speech lasted 25 minutes. Using 2012 spending levels as a reference, the federal government spent $170 million during the President’s speech, at a rate of roughly $6.8 million per minute.

Those numbers won’t be found outside of the conservative blogosphere, however. The legacy media are more concerned with how much money a woman, who currently does hold publicly office, made for appearing a privately owned television station than they are with how much money the President’s junkets and astronomical spending are costing the taxpayers.