the State Department set aside a staggering $11,519,617 on hotels and ground transportation costs for President Obama and his entourage to attend Nelson Mandela's memorial service last week, it was revealed today. One contract letter budgeted more than $8.2 million for 'passenger vehicles, SUVs, vans, and buses, as well as supplies and goods vehicles such as pickup trucks, box trucks, and larger capacity vehicles,' according to documents first posted online by the Weekly Standard. Two more authorized State to spend in excess of $3.2 million on hotels from December 6 to January 20, including costs for a whopping 5,730 'hotel room nights' overall – a number that works out to represent more than 127 separate rooms.
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Obama arrived and departed on the same day, spending less than 13 hours on the ground in South Africa for Nelson Mandela's memorial service
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The State Department budgeted $11,519,617 in three separate contract documents covering ground transportation and lodging
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Hotel rooms were authorized through the middle of January even though Mandela was laid to rest on December 15
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The nearly $180,000-per-hour cost of flying Air Force One, the president's customized Boeing 747 aircraft, was not part of the cost estimate
Obama's armored limousine and emergency helicopter, for instance, typically travel on a military cargo plane that accompanies @placeholder.