Jeff Wartman

Leave it to Matt Drude to connect the dots.

The latest numbers for the Obama extravaganza for the upcoming inauguration are in and they ar staggering.  From the UK Daily Mail…

Barack Obama’s inauguration is set to cost more than £100m making it the most expensive swearing-in ceremony in US history.

The President-elect will take less than a minute to recite the oath of office in front of an estimated two million people in the US capital next week.

But by the time the final dance has been held at one of the many inaugural balls the costs for the day will be a staggering £110m.

In case you were wondering, 110 million British pounds is approximately $160 million dollars.  While the entire cost is split between private donations and federal tax money, the inauguration is still the most expensive in United States history.

However, the left hasn’t always thought highly about grand inaugurations.  It seems the left was pretty upset over the Bush inauguration in January of 2005.  From Salon.com in 2005:

And it might have been helpful in the limited media debate that did take place about the inauguration’s costs to point out that if the $40 million to $50 million raised for the GOP’s parties had been donated to the war effort, as some have suggested, the money would have covered only about six hours of the U.S. military’s operations in Iraq. (Costs are running roughly $110,000 per minute there.) Also interesting but unnoted is that between the 2001 and 2005 inaugurations, Bush and his supporters have spent roughly $115 million total on parties and parades.

Of course, Bush’s inaugurations seem paltry compared to the money being spent on the party for next week.  With these revelations, along with the undisputedly pro-war cabinet and pro-war policies of Mr. Obama, perhaps the left will feel a bit betrayed?