Second Inaugurals -- Humbug!
There's no good reason for taxpayers to foot the bill for any second inaugural.
Second Inaugurals -- Humbug!
John Baer, Daily News Political Columnist
(A brief discussion twixt Baer & Baer's editor, a.k.a. BE)
JB: Know what annoys me?
BE: Practically everything?
JB: True, but Monday's second inaugural of President Obama or, for that matter, the second inaugural of any president is really galling.
BE: Because you don't like to see anyone celebrating our political system or, for that matter, having fun?
JB: Because like so much of what happens in Washington it's done for people in Washington, to the exclusion of almost everybody who actually PAYS for Washington.
BE: It's a visual declaration of our country's democracy, which covers all of our people.
JB: It's a gaudy display of the fact our tax dollars are used like play money in our nation's capital.
BE: Can you be specific? Isn't most of the cost footed by private donations?
JB: Sure, by people and corporations buying access. In other words, just like the political process. But there's also untold millions of tax dollars needlessly spent.
BE: Untold?
JB: Exactly. Various reports say we don't know how much of our money is spent because the bulk is for "security." But there's $2 million for the U.S. Capitol Police, $1.2 million from the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies for the event and the private luncheon, and the Associated Press reports Congress allocated $4.2 million to "spruce up" the grounds of the Capitol and build the inaugural platform, bleachers and barricades.
BE: Ya gotta have barricades.
JB: ABC News reports we don't know security costs but says it's in the tens of millions, shared by the Secret Service, DC police and others.
BE: Ya gotta have security.
JB: Point is you don't gotta have a second inaugural. Swear in any second-term prez at the White House, as was done Sunday, and be done with it. There's no reason to give rich people and corporate America another excuse to party while millions of taxpayers go to work to foot the bill.
BE: Aren't you forgetting something?
JB: Oh, right. Grrrrrr!
Inauguration "festivities" the second time around are a total waste of money. He has already sworn (the first time) to carry out his duties, etc. All he has to do this time is re-affirm what he said the first time. At a time when all we hear is "fiscal cliff" and "raise the debt ceiling by BILLIONS OF DOLLARS" (plus rampant unemployment), WASTING MILLIONS of $$ ON PARTIES is not the kind of leadership our country needs. Whatever happened to "lead by example?"— dee99999- "There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a Democratic Socialism." - Dr. Martin Luther King
Since Obama took office, the government has released the unemployment rate 46 times. Of those 46 releases, the rate has been worse than it was four years before exactly 46 times. In other words, at least as far as employment, the Obama presidency has given us exactly zero months that were better than four years ago. Zero.
For those who are not mathematicians out there, that is a one hundred percent failure rate. New Slogan?
Barack Obama. One hundred percent failure.
— Hobo Floto Voto - Actually, Bobo Bloto Boto, you're full of it. You pick one point in time when unemployment was lower during the Bush administration to compare monthly figures during the Obama administration. You must think people are as stupid as you are. Core Republican policies are were responsible for the Great Recession. When Obama took office, we were losing hundreds of thousands of jobs every month and the global banking system was in the verge of collapse due to Bush and Republicans. Bush drove up the debt with his annual deficits, tax cuts for the super wealthy, Medicare prescription drug benefits and unfunded wars. Most of Obama's deficits were due to fixing the mess Republicans created. Thank God Obama was in office. If the Do Nothing Republicans in Congress would have passed his Jobs Bill, we'd be further along with the recovery. And the idiotic Republican governors cutting spending in a furious attempt to tank the economy didn't help. In PA and NJ, unemployment is up, state income tax revenue is down, foreclosures are up and we're headed for deficits. That's the same policies that Republicans in Congress have been proposing and the results would have been the same. At least Obama blocked those policies.— MikeP
- Sour grapes.— ralcarbo
John is the author of the book "On The Front Lines of Pennsylvania Politics: Twenty-Five Years of Keystone Reporting" (The History Press, 2012). Reach John at baerj@phillynews.com.
