Jan 18 2009
The Cost of Coronation
The numbers are staggering. According to a report on Fox News this morning, the economy is shedding jobs at the rate of 17,000 per day. Frank Luntz, author of Words That Work, and Fox News contributor went on to say that the foreclosure crisis has yet to peak, but the experts expect the rate to rise to 13,000 every day in the near future.
No part of the country has remained unscathed. Except, perhaps, the Beltway elitists and their king, Barak Obama. While millions of Americans are waking up homeless and hopeless, the urbanites who brought us this fiscal disaster are kicking up their hills on the National Mall, to the tune of $160 million. Who cares if the country is broke? If the king wants a party; the king gets a party. As for all those bankrupt and jobless millions, let them eat cake.
Obama’s transition team is hoping to raise $45 million through private donations. Their about halfway there. Private donors with ties to big oil, big pharma, and global finance have given millions to cover the inauguration. Something tells me they’re going to expect more than a simple “thank you.”
Here’s a list of the top industries that ponied up for the coronation:
Securities & Investment—$3,603,000
Lawyers/Law Firms—$2,508,950
Misc Business—$2,191,127
TV/Movies/Music— $1,748,200
Real Estate—$1,570,805
Business Services—$1,307,450
Misc Finance—$1,176,750
Homemakers/Non-income earners—$1,132,440
Retired—$1,082,850
Computers/Internet—$1,029,750
On top of the $45 million the transition team is hoping to raise through an extensive online and e-mail campaign, the federal government has budgeted another $45 million for the event. And, because of the expected number of people converging on the Eastern Seaboard, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia have requested $75 to cover the costs. In case you’re counting, that’s $169 million dollars for a party.
Obama likes to invoke Abraham Lincoln when he talks about hope and change, but a more accurate archetype would most certainly be the Emperor Nero, who literally held his audience captive while he performed a macabre skit as Rome burned to the ground.
I smell smoke.
