Conflicting Sentiment Surrounds First Lady's Trip

First Lady Michelle Obama’s trip to Spain last week drew criticism from some who felt as though her vacation sent the wrong message to Americans hit hard by a prolonged recession.

The Tribune’s Peter Nicholas remarked on Friday that “the pictures coming out of a sunsplashed Spanish resort…may be sending a different message.” Great Britain’s The Daily Mail reported that Mrs. Obama and her youngest daughter, Sasha, were accompanied by 40 friends, and that the five-day trip cost American taxpayers roughly $75,000 per day.

Chicago Sun-Times White House correspondent Lynn Sweet, however, rebuked some earlier reporting regarding the trip. In particular, Sweet said sources told her that the First Lady only traveled with two other women, and that they each paid for their lavish hotel rooms and other personal expenses. Sweet also wrote that a source told her that Mrs. Obama was invited to go on the trip by Anita Blanchard, a close friend of her’s from Chicago who is married to Marty Nesbitt, the treasurer of Barack Obama’s presidential campagin.

Last week, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs responded to a question of how the First Lady’s trip would be perceived by Americans. “She is a private citizen and is the mother of a daughter on a private trip,” Gibbs said. “I think I’d leave it at that,” he added.

Yet, while Mrs. Obama may not have been elected to office, she is nonetheless a public figure who oversees a major White House initiative on childrens’ health. Sweet echoed that fact in her column today, writing that “it is reasonable to ask how she spends taxpayer resources.”

Green Jobs: Fact Or Fiction?

By Suzia van Swol, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

President Obama complements Spain as a "Green" industry leader, but according to Ben Lieberman, a specialist in energy and environmental issues, “if there really was a green jobs miracle to be had, we would be seeing it in Spain,” but the reality “is just not that."

Gabriel Calzada, Associate Professor of Economics at the King Juan Carlos University in Spain, said that although Spain energy is green, it is “very costly. It was green, but very risky.” Calzada warned that the richest families are profiting while consumers pay high prices on steeper energy bills and raised taxes.

In a study sited by Calzada, for every green job subsidized in the renewable field, “2.2 jobs would have been created in the rest of the economy.”

There are many energy companies advocating in favor of long term investments, but, "are they so stupid as to not realize, you could get immediate payback if you would just do something else,” said Tom Bogart Professor of Economics at York College.

Bogart warned that in order to sustain energy jobs, the U.S. will eventually have to borrow money from China. And, instead of creating a job market, the U.S. will have to rely on others for this new sector, he said.

“It is not true that you can have you cake and eat it too when it comes to green jobs,” said Robert Murphy, an Economist with the Institute for Energy Research.