$160 For Inauguration…And Counting.. In THIS Economy?
So I just found this story saying the inauguration of President Obama is going to cost upwards of $160 million.
Dollars.
In this horrible economy when people are losing jobs, losing insurance and going bankrupt, the presidential team has decided to spend more than $160 to hold a four day bash.
Now I am all for celebrating but I am also about being practical and this to me is just not practical. Things are very bad right now so I am sure they could have found a way to spend less and still have a great time.
I was talking to someone about this and here is the response I got.
“Well all the other presidents spent a lot on their inaugurations so why should we cut spending when the Black man becomes president.”
Now mind you, I am also black (this came a from a black person) but it is the MOST riduculous response I have heard in a long time.
It does not matter that he is black…the economy is bad. Therefore his team should have taken that into consideration when planning the ceremony.
Not all the presidents had parties because there was no money available for them. I can’t wait until the final figures are released so we can see how much was REALLY spent.
What do you think of the whole election party thing?
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7 Responses to “$160 For Inauguration…And Counting.. In THIS Economy?”
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[...] we have the presidential inauguration that took place just a few days ago. I read a bit over at How I Save Money which actually gave me the idea for this blog post. Lulu reported that the inauguration was going [...]
The questions are how it compares to past inaugurations, and how much cost comes from the taxpayers?
I never realized how much those things cost. I cant believe that they would spend so much. Instead they should give $2 to each american to celebrate this day.
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From the reports that I have read, the committee only raised about $43 million to help with the cost and the rest is coming from tax payers.
The reports also stated that it cost $42 million for the last inauguration.
Glad to see I am not the only one that thought this was crazy, but my thoughts were about all of the people that actually attended the inauguration. Like you said, if things are sooo bad, people are losing their jobs, etc… then how could all of those what, 2 million + people afford to fly to D.C., afford hotel costs, afford food and afford to miss work?
I might actually write a blog post on this cause it doesn’t make sense IMO.
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I think part of it has to do with how many police and SS agents they need to keep the peace. My state sent hundreds of officers to help out, and they did not volunteer for free. So they had to pay them, feed them, pay for travel, house them and some had to be uniformed especially for the event. That adds up big time.
Obama is also keeping the furniture in the white house as-is, which is unusual enough that it’s been mentioned on the news a bit. Generally, when the new guy comes in he cleans house and changes all the furniture he can, plus carpets, drapes, and even wallpaper — to the tune of millions. The maintenance people painted some rooms before he was sworn in and that was it. He even kept that awful rug in the oval office so that he wouldn’t have to get a new one. It was custom-designed by Laura Bush and cost in the tens of thousands to create, and that is not unusual for an oval office rug.
I think it’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing, so I’m more willing to give leeway than if he was buying a gold toilet or something.
From that money, that means it is spent for the people, helping a bit of the economy. It’s just like Olympic games, spending money just for sports? But it definitely will help the economy. Police will get money, hotels will get money too.
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