How much did it cost American taxpayers to send President Barack Obama to India in November 2010?
It depends on who you ask.
See more: 5 Wacky Myths About Obama
The Press Trust of India reported the cost of sending some 3,000 White House officials and security agents with Obama to India would be about $200 million a day for two days.
"The huge amount of around $200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit," the Press Trust of India quoted an unnamed government official as saying.
Republican U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, a frequent critic of the Democratic president, repeated the $200 million estimate of sending Obama to India.
"Well I think we know that just within a day or so, the president of the United States will be taking a trip over to India that is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day," Bachmann said. "He's taking two thousand people with him. He'll be renting out over 870 rooms in India. And these are 5-star hotel rooms at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. This is the kind of over-the-top spending, it's a very small example ..."
White House Disputes Cost of Sending Obama to India
The White House said the $200 million estimates of sending Obama to India "have no basis in reality" but did not disclose the cost.
"Due to security concerns, we are unable to outline details associated with security procedures and costs, but it's safe to say these numbers are wildly inflated," a White House spokesman told the media.
The website FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, noted that the entire war in Afghanistan costs $190 million a day.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the cost of sending Obama to India would be "comparable" to sending President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush abroad.
The Government Accountability Office has reported in the past that the cost to taxpayers of sending Clinton to Africa, Chile and China in 1998 cost at least $42.8 million, $10.5 million and $18.8 million, respectively.