Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money!
Posted on 01/14/2009 7:17:04 PM PST by Free ThinkerNY
President Barack Obama's inauguration next week is set to be the most expensive ever, predicted to reach over $150m (£102m). This dwarfs the $42.3m spent on George Bush's inauguration in 2005 and the $33m spent on Bill Clinton's in 1993.
Part of the spending includes emergency funding announced by the White House on Tuesday to help with the soaring costs. Most of this new federal funding will be to deal with the huge influx of people, estimated 1.5 million to 2 million.
A White House statement said that President Bush "declared an emergency exists in the District of Columbia".
If there is snow, the costs will grow higher. The long-term forecast suggests there is a chance of snow on Sunday and again on the day of inauguration, on Tuesday.
Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the joint congressional committee on inaugural ceremonies, told the New York Daily News, which estimated the cost at $160m: "We're always very budget conscious. But we're sending a message to the entire world about our peaceful transition of power, and you don't want it to look like a schlock affair. It needs to be appropriate to the magnitude of events that it is."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
The NYet Times doesn't give a Rat's a$$ this time around I see.
For Inauguration in Wartime, a Lingering Question of Tone (NYTimes.com > Washington By JOHN TIERNEY Published: January 16, 2005)
WASHINGTON, Jan. 15 - Inaugurations are always balancing acts: part coronation, part celebration of democracy, part touchdown dance in the end zone. But they become even trickier during times of war, particularly when television images of dancers in black tie can be instantly juxtaposed with soldiers in body armor...."Our tone throughout the inaugural events will show gratitude toward those who protect the ideals that make our nation so great," said Jeanne L. Phillips, the chairwoman of the inaugural committee, which seeks to raise $30 million to $40 million through ticket sales and private donations to pay for the events.
...Some critics say spending so much on these parties seems ill-timed both because of the Iraq war and the tsunami catastrophe in Asia. Anthony D. Weiner, a Democratic congressman preparing to run for mayor of New York, sent President Bush a letter on Tuesday suggesting that the millions in inaugural funds be sent to the troops in Iraq.
"Precedent suggests that inaugural festivities should be muted - if not canceled - in wartime," Mr. Weiner wrote, noting that in 1945 Franklin D. Roosevelt limited the celebration to a cold luncheon at the White House...
Mo Money, Mo Money, Mo Money!
GEE, WHAT A SHOCK ( NOT )
Does anyone remember the movie “The Man Who would Be King”?
Remember the bad ending for the “king”?
0bama is the punk who would be king.
W's inaug ran about $70,000,000 when you add security.
We must all make sacrifices in the new economy. Except for some.
This is an unprecedented event, and I think SOME more extravagance is called for. I actually heard a kid say that now, even HE can become president (he's black), and that is a good thing, something worth celebrating, I think (maybe next we'll get a conservative constructionist black candidate!), but this? Plus the Lincoln-mimick train trip?
Alternatively, Obama could use the $160 Million to cut a check for for $80 Million for each of the projected 2 million people showing up for this fiasco. Then he could have his inauguration televised for free by all radio and television stations. I bet even the most crazed ObamaNuts would think this is change they can believe in.
Good page
Does that include the l.5 million free Odumbo balloons?
Exactly!!! Oh remember the whiny little b*tch from Vanity Fair blabbering on Fox News when President Bush was re-elected?
She was saying how DARE he have a big celebration with a war in Iraq, and soldiers dying.
Well? There’s still a war in Iraq AND a recession.
I won’t hold my breath for the media to start complaining about it.
I wonder how the American people that are truly in trouble and losing their homes feel about this. That’s why my Flag is still flying half mast upside down. God hear our prayers and have mercy on America.
The iniguration, the first black man to be president, on the day after a national holiday, the celebration of moonbattiness extrodinare is the time to pull out the stops.
Money is no object. The rich are rich. Their money will be appropriated as necessary
Absolutely insane.
Most expensive inauguration after the MOST EXPENSIVE electoral campaign....
Most corrupted staff,most liberal ideology....
The CHICAGO boy is TOO MUCH
With a chill factor of -30 or so ... and wind gusts of 50-65 miles per hour.
I’m hoping for a blizzard to snow on his parade.
Soros should pay for the whole thing. After all he owns the Obamination
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