(no subject)

[windelina]

The Washington Post reports that the Bush administration, which is raising $40 million in private funds for the most expensive inauguration in history next week, wants the District of Columbia, for the first time in history, to pay all of its own expenses -- estimated at more than $17 million. In order to do so, the district will be required to divert $11.9 million from federal homeland security funding earmarked for hospitals, firefighting equipment and transit command centers.

The city's costs include $8.8 million in overtime pay for police officers, $2.7 million to pay officers being sent from around the nation to help with the event, $3 million to construct reviewing stands and $2.5 million to place the entire city infrastructure on emergency status. More than 100 square blocks of the city will be closed to vehicular traffic for this first post-9/11 inauguration.

For all previous inaugurations, Congress has made a direct appropriation to the perennially cash-strapped city to cover most or all of its costs. Boston and New York also each got $50 million from the federal government to cover costs associated with last year's party conventions, although those are private events while the inauguration is an official celebration.

Critics from many quarters have asked whether it is even appropriate to have an extravagant, boisterous inauguration, given that soldiers are dying daily in Iraq and hundreds of thousands are still suffering the catastrophic effects of the South Asia tsunami.

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I am so not surprised.

Remember: Bush originally offered 15 million to tsunami aid - less than HALF of what his inauguration will cost. I think we know where his priorities are.

Comments

[petsnakereggie.livejournal.com]

I'm doing the "I hate my President" dance right now.

It isn't all that hard. It mostly involves one finger.

[redbird23.livejournal.com]

I was listening to MPR talk about all the security measures being taken and it made me so sad.

We are spending all of this money so a bunch of people can celebrate and pat themselves on the back for a job well-done (winning an election by a narrow margin that was still rife with voting problems even after all the hype from four years ago). Meanwhile, there are SO MANY OTHER PLACES that money could be better-spent.

Does this improve our image to the world? Does this foster good will? Peace among nations? Generate a giving spirit?

I don't think so, and those are the reasons I can think of to spend gobs of money on luxury items at this juncture.

[morgana-lafey.livejournal.com]

I know I'm just echoing everyone else, but I need to vent a little about this whole thing. I can't think of anything tackier than spending an exorbitant. amount of money to celebrate a victory that was narrowly won AT BEST. I would think that someone who probably cheated his way into office would be quiet and gracious, especially when we're at war and a significant number of people in the world are still reeling from a natural disaster, the likes of which we have never experienced. But no, not W. Nothing's too extravagant for God's Chosen King of America. He's not only having a grand inauguration, but the most expensive one in history. He's just adding insult to injury for those of us who don't support him. I feel bad for DC having to pay for this hoopla, especially since a majority of people there didn't even vote for Bush.

[birdfigment.livejournal.com]

This has been Big (and Angry) news here. We already have to deal with making our public transport system and roads support all the f*cking inauguration tourists. But now we have to pay for it too??

[wombat-socho.livejournal.com]

Is that $15 million in addition to or including the cost of the two carrier groups we have down there helping, Windy? For that matter, doesn't all the privately raised tsunami aid count, or do you only count tax-funded assistance?

For that matter, it says here in the article you're quoting that the Homeland Security money could be used to pay the costs associated with the inauguration, since it hadn't been spent on anything else. Knowing the incredible efficiency of the DC city government, they'd probably forgotten they had the grant money sitting around. This is the same outfit, mind you, that bent over for Major League Baseball and agreed to build a new stadium with public funding, and which routinely leads the nation in per-pupil school spending while managing to trail Mississippi in student achievement.

But yeah, you're right, what the hell are we thinking, throwing a bash to celebrate W's inauguration (complete with Kid Rock, woo!) when people are dying in Iraq? For that matter, why did we celebrate Clinton's inaugural back in '91 when people were dying in Somalia and Bosnia? Gosh, there's really no reason at all for anyone to have a good time this year, what with the tsunami and the ongoing slaughter in the Sudan and the horrible repression continuing in Tibet. Let's just cancel Marscon and Anime Detour and Convergence too, and sit around in sackcloth and ashes this year meditating on how sad the world is and what fucked-up people live in it. Yeah, that's the ticket. *rolls eyes*