Obama’s recent anti-Vegas comments come less than a year after he said federal bailout money shouldn’t be used for corporations to visit Las Vegas.
Yet, the President claims he didn’t mean anything unfavorable about Las Vegas.
Las Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman says President Obama is no longer welcome in Silver City after Obama told a New Hampshire audience, “When times are tough, you tighten your belts, you don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage. You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”
In a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid President Obama said:
“I hope you know that during my Town Hall today, I wasn’t saying anything negative about Las Vegas. I was making the simple point that families use vacation dollars, not college tuition money, to have fun,” Obama wrote. “There is no place better to have fun than Vegas, one of our country’s great destinations. I have always enjoyed my visits, look forward to visiting in a few weeks, and hope folks will visit in record numbers this year.”
Goodman isn’t buying it, he told reporters gathered into his office at City Hall, “Obama is no friend to Las Vegas. I think he has a psychological hangup about us.”
Senator Reid isn’t very happy either, in a statement released about the incident Reid urged Obama to “lay off Las Vegas.”
“I just spoke to the White House and told them that while the president is correct that people saving for college need to be fiscally responsible, the president needs to lay off Las Vegas and stop making it the poster child for where people shouldn’t be spending their money,” Reid said. “To truly reenergize our economy, we need people to travel to Las Vegas. I would much rather tourists and business travelers spend their money in Las Vegas than spend it overseas.”
