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Apparently, it doesn't count as money when you're spending it on ritzy galas. As Jared points out over at StringCans.com from this article on AlterNet,$ 40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs.
$2,000: Amount FDR spent on the inaugural in 1945 … about $20,000 in today’s dollars.
$20,000: Cost of yellow roses purchased for inaugural festivities by D.C.’s Ritz Carlton.
$17 million: Amount of money the White House is forcing the cash-strapped city of Washington, D.C., to pony up for inauguration security. And a few more:
22 million: Number of children in regions devastated by the tsunami who could have received vaccinations and preventive health care with the amount of money spent on the inauguration.
$200,500: Price of a room package at D.C.'s Mandarin Oriental hotel, including presidential suite, chauffeured Mercedes limo and outfits from Neiman Marcus.
$10,000: Price of an inaugural package at the Fairmont Hotel, which includes a Beluga caviar and Dom Perignon reception, a chauffeured Rolls Royce and two actors posing as "faux" Secret Service agents, complete with black sunglasses and cufflink walkie-talkies. But don't question it. What are you, some kind of Osama worhsipper? Don't you know that if we don't spend 40 mil on the inauguration, the terrorists win?
I like how social security is "in crisis" and we can only give $350 million to the tsunami victims (and that only after someone pointed out that $30 million or whatever wasn't enough), but we can spend not only billions on a useless war but $40 MILLION on a few parties and some coctail shrimp?
I mean, holy shit, the amount they spent on the yellow roses is almost as much as a NC school teacher makes in a year!
By the way, let's not ignore that these are mostly private donations.
That said, the administration accepted the money and used every bit of it for the inauguration rather than do something like ask those people to please donate the money to a more worthy cause. you better damn well believe if i got donations in excess of 40 million dollars, I'd be giving alot of it away.
It's an abomination.
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