Trickle-down inauguration spending

[quaoar]

The right never ceases to amaze me with their new and inventive ways to spin bullshit.

I never realized that all those lavish balls are really for the benefit of the little people. That plus a socialistic transfer of wealth.

http://www.nationalcenter.org/2005/01/inaugural-costs-transferring-wealth.html

Inaugural Costs: Transferring Wealth, Not Wasting It

Though I am oversimplifying in the service of brevity, there is more truth than fiction in the notion that money spent on inaugural festivities represents a transfer of wealth from big corporations and individuals of decent income to men and women who work for caterers, restaurants, hotels, the D.C. convention center, security firms, limousine services and printers, or who are taxi drivers or police officers on overtime.

What do critics of inaugural spending cited by the Associated Press, the Washington Post, the New York Times and others have against working people earning a decent living?

Besides, those who can't stand wealth transfers within the private sector could cheer the fact that the government is taking a nice slice of the private money being spent on the aforementioned services though sales and income taxes.

[dqueue]

1. NPR reported $85 MILLION in fed payroll

I heard NPR report the fed would cover $85 million in payroll for the employees who missed work today. Why did they miss work? 100 blocks were cordoned off in DC. 100 blocks! To "protect" the chimp... not from terra-ists... but from We, the people...

[NYC]

3. So, we, the taxpayers, are paying $85 million in salaries

for no work done because of Bush. That's a figure to be added to the $40+ million, and the expense to D.C. for security that will not be reimbursed by the federal government.

I wonder how much this really cost altogether.

By the way, Billionaire Bloomberg tried to say that the Republican National Convention was good for shopkeepers, but eventually had to admit that it caused a loss. People couldn't get to the stores, and the Republicans were either going to free places, or for the most part, too afraid to go out alone.

[MisterP]

2. heck, the libertarians said price-gouging in Fla. after the hurricanes

was a good thing: "better to have ice at $2 a block than none at all," and how laws against gouging were killing people and everyone who didn't fondle tiny statuettes of Ayn Rand was a fascist-communist authoritarian and blah blah blah...

[dqueue]

4. Add to that...

Of course, They conveniently made all the hubbub about the new Cadillac presidential limo... I wonder if the entire procession had new limos? How much do those cost? In how much disrepair was the previous limo that shrubbery had to have a new one? For the price of these limos, how many armored vehicles could have been deployed to protect our soldiers?

So shameful...