Give Us Liberty: Dear American Taxpayer,

Dear American Taxpayer,

For only the second time in my adult life, I am not ashamed of my country. I love being an American First Lady.

I want to thank the hard working American people for paying for my many trips and vacations. I have been so busy with my food policing that I was only able to take one big trip a month. My daughter Sasha, several long-time family friends, my personal staff of 75 and various guests had a wonderful time in Spain .

Honestly, you just haven't lived until you have stayed in a private 3-story villa at a 5-Star luxury hotel, the Villa Padierna, but it only cost $95,000, and I was able to hold the total bill under $500,000. for the week. What a bargain!

Thank you also for the use of Air Force Two and the 70 Secret Service personnel who tagged along to be sure we were safe and cared for at all times.
Air Force Two (which costs $11,351 per hour to operate according to Government Accounting Office reports) only used 47,500 gallons of jet fuel for this trip and carbon emissions were a mere 1,031 tons of CO2.
That's quite a carbon footprint as my good friend Al Gore would say, so we must ask the American citizens to drive smaller, more fuel efficient cars and drive less too, so we can lessen our combined carbon footprint.

But hey, Barack’s Air Force One costs about $200,000. per hour to operate and with his many trips, he spent almost half a billion dollars on flights alone last year. Yeah, that’s with a B… $500,000,000.

By the way, if you happen to be visiting the Costa del Sol, I highly recommend the Buenaventura Plaza restaurant in Marbella; great lobster with rice and oysters!

I'm ashamed to admit the lobsters we ate in Martha's Vineyard were not quite as tasty, but what can you do if you're not in Europe, you have to just grin and bear it.

I know times are hard and millions of you are struggling to put food on the table and trying to make ends meet. So I do appreciate your sacrifices and do hope you find work soon.

I was really exhausted after Barack took our family on a luxury vacation in Maine a few weeks ago. I just had to get away for a few days.

Cordially,
Michelle Obama

P.S. Thank you as well for the $2 BILLION dollar trip to India from which we just returned!

P.SS. Thank you, too, for that vacation trip to Martha's Vineyard; it was fabulous. And thanks for that second smaller jet that took our dog Bo to Martha's Vineyard so we and the children could have him with us while we were away from the White House for eleven days.

P.SSS. Oh, I almost forgot to say thanks also for our two-week trip to Hawaii at Christmas. That 7,000 square foot house was great!