Inaugural Comparisions
The Progress Report - American Progress Action Fund
Christy Harvey has put together an interesting set of comparisions in the style of Harper’s Index - for links to the background, visit the link above please.
Here’s just the list:
$40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs.$2,000: Amount FDR spent on the inaugural in 1945…about $20,000 in today’s dollars.
$20,000: Cost of yellow roses purchased for inaugural festivities by D.C.’s Ritz Carlton.
200: Number of Humvees outfitted with top-of-the-line armor for troops in Iraq that could have been purchased with the amount of money blown on the inauguration.
$10,000: Price of an inaugural package at the Fairmont Hotel, which includes a Beluga caviar and Dom Perignon reception, a chauffeured Rolls Royce and two actors posing as “faux” Secret Service agents, complete with black sunglasses and cufflink walkie-talkies.
400: Pounds of lobster provided for “inaugural feeding frenzy” at the exclusive Mandarin Oriental hotel.
3,000: Number of “Laura Bush Cowboy cookies” provided for “inaugural feeding frenzy” at the Mandarin hotel.
$1: Amount per guest President Carter spent on snacks for guests at his inaugural parties. To stick to a tight budget, he served pretzels, peanuts, crackers and cheese and had cash bars.
22 million: Number of children in regions devastated by the tsunami who could have received vaccinations and preventive health care with the amount of money spent on the inauguration.
1,160,000: Number of girls who could be sent to school for a year in Afghanistan with the amount of money lavished on the inauguration.
$15,000: The down payment to rent a fur coat paid by one gala attendee who didn’t want the hassle of schlepping her own through the airport.
$200,500: Price of a room package at D.C.’s Mandarin Oriental, including presidential suite, chauffeured Mercedes limo and outfits from Neiman Marcus.
2,500: Number of U.S. troops used to stand guard as President Bush takes his oath of office
26,000: Number of Kevlar vests for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan that could be purchased for $40 million.
$290: Bonus that could go to each American solider serving in Iraq, if inauguration funds were used for that purpose.
$6.3 million: Amount contributed by the finance and investment industry, which works out to be 25 percent of all the money collected.
$17 million: Amount of money the White House is forcing the cash-strapped city of Washington, D.C., to pony up for inauguration security.
9: Percentage of D.C. residents who voted for Bush in 2004.
66: Percentage of Americans who think this over-the-top inauguration should have been scaled back.
While I’m on it, here are just a couple of figures from December’s Harper’s Index - the January one isn’t out yet.
Revenue generated by Halliburton under CEO Dick Cheney from business deals with Iraq under Saddam Hussein : $30,000,000 [Colum Lynch, Washington Post (N.Y.C.) ]
Estimated revenue generated by Halliburton last year through subsidiaries in Iran : $63,506,000 [Halliburton (Houston, Tex.) ]
Value of the Halliburton shares owned by New York City’s Fire Department Pension Fund : $3,359,095 [Office of the Comptroller (N.Y.C.) ]
Number of times since 2002 the city has filed a shareholders’ resolution questioning the risk of doing business in Iran : 3 [Office of the Comptroller (N.Y.C.) ]
Number of companies in which Tom Ridge holds stock that have a contract with the Department of Homeland Security : 7 [U.S. Department of Homeland Security ]
Minimum number of bullets the U.S. military purchased for use this year : 1,500,000,000 [Program Executive Office for Ammunition (Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.) ]
Average number of bullets per Iraqi this represents : 58 [Harper's Research ]
Minimum number of countries with a greater capacity to produce nuclear weapons than Iraq at the time of the U.S. invasion : 35 [International Atomic Energy Agency (Vienna) ]
