Okay friends. The inauguration party is over. It’s time to get back to work. Hope you don’t have a hangover from all the celebrating because the bad news is our little DC bash cost us an estimated $300 million. Now we have to figure out how to pay for that.
Crikey dudes! Did you get that? $300 million, blown mostly on our need - as a couple of news reporters commented - to make ourselves feel good about being Americans? Couldn’t we have celebrated a little cheaper? After all, this was Obama’s second inaugural, why couldn’t we have been satisfied with his private swearing in on Sunday and said to him, now get to work on doing something about the economy, immigration, gun control, the climate and other pressing issues. “You and Mrs. O and the girls have some cake and ice cream in the White House with a few close friends, go to bed at a decent hour, then get up early tomorrow morning and hit the floor running. “
Sorry Barack, but $300 million for a party - especially for a second election celebration - seems a tad excessive in light of this country’s struggling economy. It was cool to celebrate with a big bash the first time you were elected, but didn’t one of the campaign slogans during your first campaign go something like, “It’s the economy stupid?” Sam and I hate it that the amount of money spent on this inauguration party makes John Boehner and his Republican cronies look right when they accuse you of being a spend-thrift president.
We understand that it was primarily the heavy security, parties and acres of portable toilets that really ran up the bill. But it’s reported that George W. Bush’s first inauguration cost only $42.3 million and his second came in at just under $30 million. Bill Clinton’s first inaugural cost only $33 million and his second inauguration cost $31 million.
Besides the fact that this inauguration party cost so much money, how do we explain to other countries (on whom we’re always trying to force our brand of democracy), that we weren’t anointing a king? That whole speech-making scenario with bands and choirs and balls and folderol - and a $300 million price tag - looked a lot like a crowning ceremony for royalty.
I remember being taught in school that our forefathers so eschewed that whole royalty thing that they actually outlawed any U.S. citizen from being crowned. Yet, if we don’t crown them literally, we sure do it figuratively. Thank God for term limits.
Sam and I realize that $300 million is a drop in the bucket when we’re spending a billion dollars or so a day in Afghanistan and when we shelled out billions to aid our big banks and automobile manufacturers, but it seems to us like at least half of that $300 million could have been a big help to the victims of Hurricane Sandy or you could siphon a couple million bucks off to each of our states to help with their economies. Wasting that kind of money on a party when we have so many other needs is kind of like giving yourself a raise and a bonus even when your company if on the verge of bankruptcy. In fact, didn’t you chide some bankers and some Wall Streeters about just such a thing?
Sorry Mr. Prez. I like you and I voted for you (both times), but Sam and I have to levy two bags of poop on you for such an expensive inauguration party.
Crikey dudes! Did you get that? $300 million, blown mostly on our need - as a couple of news reporters commented - to make ourselves feel good about being Americans? Couldn’t we have celebrated a little cheaper? After all, this was Obama’s second inaugural, why couldn’t we have been satisfied with his private swearing in on Sunday and said to him, now get to work on doing something about the economy, immigration, gun control, the climate and other pressing issues. “You and Mrs. O and the girls have some cake and ice cream in the White House with a few close friends, go to bed at a decent hour, then get up early tomorrow morning and hit the floor running. “
Sorry Barack, but $300 million for a party - especially for a second election celebration - seems a tad excessive in light of this country’s struggling economy. It was cool to celebrate with a big bash the first time you were elected, but didn’t one of the campaign slogans during your first campaign go something like, “It’s the economy stupid?” Sam and I hate it that the amount of money spent on this inauguration party makes John Boehner and his Republican cronies look right when they accuse you of being a spend-thrift president.
We understand that it was primarily the heavy security, parties and acres of portable toilets that really ran up the bill. But it’s reported that George W. Bush’s first inauguration cost only $42.3 million and his second came in at just under $30 million. Bill Clinton’s first inaugural cost only $33 million and his second inauguration cost $31 million.
Besides the fact that this inauguration party cost so much money, how do we explain to other countries (on whom we’re always trying to force our brand of democracy), that we weren’t anointing a king? That whole speech-making scenario with bands and choirs and balls and folderol - and a $300 million price tag - looked a lot like a crowning ceremony for royalty.
I remember being taught in school that our forefathers so eschewed that whole royalty thing that they actually outlawed any U.S. citizen from being crowned. Yet, if we don’t crown them literally, we sure do it figuratively. Thank God for term limits.
Sam and I realize that $300 million is a drop in the bucket when we’re spending a billion dollars or so a day in Afghanistan and when we shelled out billions to aid our big banks and automobile manufacturers, but it seems to us like at least half of that $300 million could have been a big help to the victims of Hurricane Sandy or you could siphon a couple million bucks off to each of our states to help with their economies. Wasting that kind of money on a party when we have so many other needs is kind of like giving yourself a raise and a bonus even when your company if on the verge of bankruptcy. In fact, didn’t you chide some bankers and some Wall Streeters about just such a thing?
Sorry Mr. Prez. I like you and I voted for you (both times), but Sam and I have to levy two bags of poop on you for such an expensive inauguration party.
No comments:
Post a Comment