INAUGURAL Balls . . . what a waste!

Construction crews worked Dec. 10, 2004 on the viewing stand for
President Bush's $40 million inauguration.

By l.t. Dravis

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – November 5, 2008 – Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." – ARTICLE II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution

Good stuff.

An essential element of our democracy: The leader of the nation stands before the world and affirms he (or she, some day soon) will preserve, protect, and defend our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms.

No wonder we’ve survived as a nation for 219 years since George Washington first spoke those words on April 30, 1789, followed by 42 subsequent Presidents who’ve repeated that oath of office.

The first inaugural was actually held on March 4, 1801 (the 20^th Amendment to the Constitution changed the inaugural date to January 20 in 1937) when Thomas Jefferson, our third President, was sworn in.

But what’s with these inaugural balls . . . you know those extravagant parties newly elected Presidents typically throw for themselves?

Why do they cost so much and why have costs escalated so dramatically over the years?

Let’s go back 35 years and track who spent how much and when.

• Before they both resigned from office, Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew spent about $4 million to congratulate themselves in 1973.
• In the 1977 Inauguration Day parade, Jimmy Carter not only delighted thousands of spectators by walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, holding hands with Rosalynn, he also cut inauguration costs to $3.5 million.
• Ronald Reagan rolled out his revolution by raising the inaugural ball bar to $16 million in 1981.
• The Reagan group then bumped the inaugural ball bar to $20 million in 1985.
• Not to be outdone by his former boss, George H.W. Bush spent $30 million on self-congratulations in 1989.
• Bill Clinton’s first inauguration in 1993 cut inaugural costs to a mere $25 million.
• But in the second Clinton term, in 1997, inaugural costs jumped to $29 million.
• George W. Bush and Dick Cheney spent $30 million congratulating themselves for taking a court-ordered election in 2001.
• Bush and Cheney really went wild in 2005 after they actually won an election and spent $40 million on 9 lavish inaugural balls.

Okay . . . so how much do taxpayers pay for all this political partying, glad-handing, back-slapping, and access-creation?

We pay direct and indirect costs for House and Senate members and staff to come up with a joint House and Senate committee to plan and budget inaugural ceremonies, to prepare the Capitol Rotunda for use in the case of bad weather, and to provide money to archive inaugural documents, files, and records. We also pay direct and indirect costs for security (Secret Service, Capitol Police, U.S. Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard).

If that isn’t enough, Congress also generously devotes $1 million of our money for the swearing-in ceremony (why it would cost $27,771.78 per word to administer the 36 word (including the President-elect’s first and last names) oath of office is beyond me).

Additionally, the Office of Personnel Management has determined that Inauguration day should be a paid-holiday for thousands upon thousands of taxpayer-paid federal employees who work ‘“in the District of Columbia, Montgomery or Prince George’s Counties in Maryland, Arlington or Fairfax Counties in Virginia, or the cities of Alexandria or Fairfax in Virginia, and who [are] regularly scheduled to perform non-overtime work on Inauguration Day”.

Though we may never know exactly how many millions of taxpayer dollars go to support all those Federal employees who cool their heels on the ‘Inauguration Day Federal Holiday’, I’d bet it’s a bunch.

So, who pays the balance of the bills for all that inaugural partying?

You won’t like the answer because . . . despite volumes of campaign rhetoric every candidate spews about the evils of influence peddling, despite every candidate’s cries about how ‘it’s time to throw out the lobbyists and special interests’, every President (so far) has launched his presidency by sending out legions of surrogates to beg and borrow cash, products, and ‘in-kind’ services from individuals, corporations, labor, lobbyists, and other special interests to pay for inaugural parties (aka ‘balls’).

Booze makers donate cases of champagne sporting the Presidential Seal, car makers happily loan hundreds of cars and trucks, hair care product manufacturers fall all over themselves to give free hair styles to politicos and journalists, HBO buys televised performances of celebrities for rebroadcast for profit, TV networks create special productions for sale with profits going to the Presidential Inaugural Committee, and on and on. Cash also pours in from tax-deductible donations from individuals, corporations, and labor unions, short-term, interest-free loans from the same groups to Inaugural organizers, ticket sales to inaugural balls and events, plus sales of inaugural trinkets (everything from medallions to temporary tattoos to umbrellas to yo-yos).

I know what you’re thinking.

But it is all legal (remember who’s writing the laws).

So, why would wealthy individuals, corporations, labor, lobbyists, and other special interests give up millions of dollars for inaugural balls?

Just because they were asked to?

Couldn’t be they’re trying to ‘buy’ access, could it?

Hmmmm.

President Obama . . . forget the inaugural balls and ask all the individuals, corporations, and labor unions who would otherwise have danced the night away to do something better with their money, products, time and efforts . . . like rebuilding homes and neighborhoods along the Gulf Coast still devastated three years after Katrina.

Copyright © 2008 by LTD Associates West, Ltd. All rights reserved.

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