President Obama (Getty)

Tax dollars are paying for President Obama's three-day bus tour of Southern states because the President says he's not out helping himself get votes. He is, the president said,  doing it for America.

President Obama will spend the early part of this week driving through North Carolina and Virginia pushing for support to pass pieces of his $447 billion jobs plan after it was shot down by Senate Republicans last week. His advisors held a conference call Sunday night where stressed the point the road trip is official business rather than a campaign event several times. This means taxpayers will be paying for Obama's Southern sojourn.

"The message to the American people and to Congress will be clear. ... Pass the bill this week to protect the job of a North Carolina teacher, or come down here, look her in the eye," Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during the call.

Both North Carolina and Virginia went for Obama in the 2008 election. President Obama was the first Democrat to win in North Carolina since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Virginia hadn't gone blue since 1964, when Lyndon Johnson became the last Democrat to win both states. More recently, President Obama's approval rating has been sinking in both states.

President Obama's last bus tour took place in August and took him through key battleground states in the Midwest--Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois. That trip was also paid for with tax dollars rather than the President's re-election campaign. President Obama's campaign war chest is already packed with more campaign contributions than all of his Republican rivals combined, but he's also able to mix work and political play for extra opportunities to push his agenda.

It's good to be the incumbent.