Quote:
Originally Posted by Ron61
Steve,
The short answer? More than $150 million — and yep, that's the most expensive ever. (By comparison, George W. Bush's 2005 inauguration cost $42.3 million. Bill Clinton managed with $33 million in 1993.)
I am not posting this as the absolute truth, but to me there is quite a bit between Obama's Inauguration and Bushs so far as money wasted.Would you complain more if something cost you $150 Million than if it cost $43 million? No argument, I just don't quite understand what you are trying to say.
Ron  |
Ron,
I agree that there is a lot of money wasted between both inaugurations (and I did complain about the cost of Bushs, and I agree that Obamas is excessive also). However, the comparison is apples and oranges. The 150-160 million figure for Obamas is an estimate and includes the cost of the parties AND security. The $43M of Bush is the figure for just the parties - adding in the cost of the security/cleanup brought the total to about $157M for his 2004 election. If you calculate that from 2004 dollars into 2008 dollars (using a CPI calculator) you get a cost of $176M - so Obamas estimate is cheaper than Bushs second inauguration! Both of them also had about $40M donated by their supporters to pay for the parties.
Steve