The Outrageously Expensive “Average Family” Vacation

When Palin was first introduced to the American public she characterized her family as an “average American Middle Class Family.” The image of the “average” American family has been promoted by Palin herself suggesting that she and her family have been targeted by the “elites” and the “blue bloods”. You might think that Sarah Palin would be embarrassed now to criticize the “elites” given her insistence upon flying in private planes, chauffeur driven black limos, and her extravagant second home in Arizona.

Palin defined an “elite” to be a person who thinks they are better than others and the opposite of the hard-working middle class.

When a non-elitist goes on a “family vacation” and they take a RV, we might imagine the rental of something like this:

We don’t think of this:

Here is what we know about the “average” American family vacation.

1. The bus used by the “family” was most likely a Prevost H-3-45. 

2. There are only a couple of dealers in customized motor coaches of this type. Rob Russell of the Russell Coach Co. is of the few dealers in the Prevost customized motor coaches. I talked with him yesterday.  He provided the following information:

a. Most coaches like the one featured in Sarah Palin’s Alaska and used by Palin on her Bus Tour, are customized buses. The customers specify what type of accommodations might be necessary and the coaches can be finished out to meet a customer’s specifications.

b. The purchase price of such a coach can vary depending on the finish out and would likely range from $450,000.00 to $1,300,000,00. When you see the potential finish out for a Prevost customized motor coach the image of an “average family vacation” would never enter your mind.

c. The cost of the “bus wrap” for Sarah Palin’s bus taken on her recent tour will cost a total of about $35,000.00.

d. It is most likely that Palin leased the motor coach at an estimated cost of $1500.00 to $2000.00 per day. This price includes a driver and does not include the expense of hotels for the driver. Thus lease cost of the bus alone could easily have exceeded $40,000.00 for just 20 days of bus rental which might be a conservative estimate of the time required for the bus rental as there would be time required before and after the trip to wrap the bus, unwrap the bus, and travel to and from the location of the trip.

The FEC filings for the SarahPAC are difficult to understand in part because the “Itemized Disbursements” may provide general descriptions like “logistical consulting” and “merchant fees.” However it is clear that the cost of this “family vacation” far exceeded the cost of an “average” family’s budget for an entire year. This “family vacation” cost at least:

1. $14,000 for the “bus wrap”

2. $10,000 on “logistical trip consulting,”

3. $3,600 to the bus driver

4. $7,000 on lodging.

However many other charges to the PAC were likely related to the family vacation. Thousands of dollars were reflected as “air travel,” even though it is not specified who traveled or the reason for the trip. These charges have dates within 30 days of the bus tour, which began over  Memorial Day Weekend.  Each individual airfare charge is not sufficiently large to expect that they reflect first class travel for Palin or rental of a private plane. In addition there are likely many bills that came in after the June 30 deadline for filing a statement of disbursements for the quarter.

Nothing about the Palin family is “average”. Nothing about this family vacation is “typical.” The only thing about the event that is “average” or “typical” is that when Sarah Palin is involved there will be an extravagant waste of PAC funds. The only thing predictable about the event is that Palin spends money in such a way that it is clear that she is a member of the elite.