The people of Chicago were certainly disappointed to learn that president Obama’s strong push to bring the 2016 Olympic Games to their city resulted in failure. However, it’s not just the people of Chicago who are suffering a loss. Taxpayers across the entire nation are paying the real price for the financial debacle that’s been dubbed Obamalympics. The estimated cost of President Obama’s attempts to win the Olympic bid is over $1 million. Many people are frustrated at this example of poor money management which comes at a time when the country needs to be looking seriously at nationwide debt solutions. No one wants to see our money wasted in an economy like this one.

Published articles estimate the cost of Obama’s push to host the Olympics to be at least $1 million. Financial bloggers are saying that’s a conservative estimate. This cost comes primarily from the fees associated with flights to visit the International Olympics Committee in Copenhagen. Multiple flights were taken by the president, the first lady and the necessary assistants and security personnel to argue for the Olympics to be held in Chicago. The cost of presidential travel doesn’t come cheap.

In fairness, the president did show some smart money management efforts by combining one of these trips with some other presidential business. He reportedly used the trip to meet with top Afghan army commander General Stanley McChrystal in Denmark. This theoretically saved the president another trip overseas and therefore saved money for the taxpayers. However, the meeting lasted less than half an hour and it is unclear whether or not it was a necessary meeting. As a result, taxpayers aren’t satisfied that this was a true attempt at good money management and remain disgruntled about the cost of these Obamalympic trips.

The economy is obviously a key issue of importance to nearly all taxpayers today. Taxpayers want the president to come up with smart debt solutions for the debt of the nation, the debts suffered by businesses and the debts that individuals are dealing with. When the president shows poor money management by spending over $1 million on an Olympic bid that results in failure, people are unhappy. To his credit, it must be noted that if the efforts had been successful then it would have meant a boost to the local economy to the tune of a few million dollars, or more. Since it was a failure, the president has to answer to the taxpayers however.