Conservatives like Rick Santorum are still mad about Barack Obama wasting taxpayer money on an elitist date night in New York City. Did they forget about how much it cost for George Bush to gather brush in Crawford, Texas?

As you might recall, Bush was mighty fond of his little ranch in Crawford. Remember that time he received a little briefing titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US" in early August of 2001? He was at his ranch in Crawford at the time, where the business of clearing brush and bike riding and shooting varmints was so important, he decided to stay for the rest of the month! So how many trips did Bush take to Crawford in total during his eight years as President? 77! How much do you reckon that cost? Daily Kos crunched some numbers and came up with an estimate:

The minimum cost per trip to Crawford TX is $226,072. That's just the estimated cost of flying Air Force One round trip - about two hours of flight time each way at $56,518 per hour. At a bare minimum, for the flights alone, Bush's 77 vacation trips to Crawford cost us $226,072 per trip. That's $17,407,544 so he could ride his bicycle in the woods and clear brush for the cameras.

Yep, that sounds about right! So can we now shutup about all this and get back to arguing over whether or not Obama's the Antichrist?

Bush Made 77 Trips to Crawford TX at $226,072 a Pop [Daily Kos]