Subject: Joe Biden's $585 000 hotel bill makes no sense- MSN Money
From: "Eric Schwerin" <[email-masked]>
To: "Hunter Biden" <[email-masked]>, "Betsy Massey" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2013 17:02:03 -0400

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http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=a21467f6-564b-4346-9d27-625b8446d9eb

Joe Biden's $585,000 hotel bill makes no sense

Traveling with Vice President Joe Biden has its perks.

Just ask the large entourage that went with him on a recent trip to Paris. A blog with the conservative news magazine The Weekly Standard points to a government document showing a $585,000 contract for Biden's stay at the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand hotel. 

Biden did spend an evening in Paris in early February, but there are no details in the document about whether this contract is accurate or what the final hotel bill came to. A standard room in the hotel costs about $475 a night, and the royal two-bedroom suite runs about $3,900 a night.

The Weekly Standard also points to another government contract for Biden's London hotel stay in early February. The contract, to the Hyatt Regency London, totaled $459,339. An associated document with that contract said it was for 136 rooms for 893 room nights.

But none of this makes sense. For 893 room nights, that would mean that the 136 rooms would be reserved for at least six nights each -- longer than Biden's entire five-day European visit.

So let's say that Biden also needed 136 rooms for his one-night stay in Paris. Even if every single room rang up the $3,900 nightly cost of the royal suite, the total still wouldn't meet the reported $585,000 contract cost.

Biden spent five days in Europe in early February in the first overseas trip of his second term. He started with a Feb. 1 visit with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, spoke at a security conference in Munich on Feb. 2, visited wounded U.S. veterans at a German hospital on Feb. 3, met with French President Francois Hollande on Feb. 4 and finally met with British Prime Minister Cameron on Feb. 5.

Twitter was lit up Friday with people enraged by the spending listed in Biden's hotel contracts. The vice president's office could calm the waters by releasing the actual numbers showing what was spent. So far, though, his Twitter account and his spokespeople are mum.

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