Bush inauguration to cost £40m

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ITV.com


President George W Bush's inauguration, which will be held later this week, is reported to be costing ｣40 million.

All eyes will be on Mr Bush when he is sworn in for his second term as President of the United States.

US political commentator Jeffrey Robinson said the expensive celebrations will be mostly funded by private donors.

Mr Bush begins his second term with considerably less popular support than other recent incumbent presidents after their re-election.

http://www.itv.com/news/world_1355704.html

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1. Bush goes to the ballroom en route to the battle

Sunday Times
Tony Allen-Mills, Washington



AS a man who admits to loathing Washington parties, President George W Bush may be in for a long evening when he marks the formal launch of his second term on Thursday with a $40m blitz of mink-draped diamond-studded celebrations featuring 10 separate inaugural balls.
The president is known to prefer baseball to dancing, but he and his wife Laura are expected to show off their Texas two-step at all 10 ballroom galas, from the Texas State Society�fs Black Tie and Boots ball to the newly introduced Commander-in-Chief ball for 2,000 military servicemen.



Complaints that the celebrations are scandalously excessive at a time of war in Iraq and in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami have barely dented Republican glee, as the president�fs supporters prepare to don alligator cowboy boots and beaver and cashmere Stetson hats in honour of his 2004 election triumph.

In a crowded inaugural schedule of private lunches and candle-lit dinners for which well-heeled Republicans have paid up to $250,000 a ticket, about the only event that Bush will not be attending is Fred Morhart�fs Inaugural Bawl, a lunch for depressed Democrats who fear four more years of swaggering Texan rule.

Other Democrats have fled to Miami for a Caribbean cruise that will keep them out of Washington all week. Yet even before the Republican revellers tuck into their inaugural dinners of roasted Missouri quail and steamed lemon pudding, the battle lines are being drawn for a gruelling confrontation over a hugely ambitious second term agenda.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1442009,00.html

[Bluebear]

2. "The president is known to prefer baseball to dancing"

Sez who? Twinkletoes sure has built a legend around him, hasn't he now?

[MaineDem]

3. Pounds? 40 million pounds??

Good lord, I thought it was only $40M.

That's 74 million dollars US!!!

Edited to change my math error and to add: Why was this moved? If the 40M pounds figure is accurate this IS LBN!

[FloridaPat]

4. Actually it will cost a lot more - around $12 million more. For the first

time in history, they are stiffing the District with the security bill.

[stray cat]

5. Bad news taxpayers: security costs now estimated at 100 million

According to CNN today the bill to tax payers is estimated at 100 million instead of the previous estimate of 12 million. Put out your checkbook.