This is completely ridiculous.?

This inauguration was not in any way more expensive than previous inaugurations. The right wing has fixated on citing the figure of inauguration costs plus security for Obama, and comparing it to simply the inauguration event costs for Bush without counting security costs.

This is a misconception peddled by such "news" outlets as Fox (particularly the notoriously heinous show "Fox and Friends").

If you compare the total cost (including security) for Obama '09 and Bush '05 inaugurations, you arrive at approximately the same number, give or take a few million (in the 140-150 million dollar range).

Now while this does seem like an outlandish expenditure in the middle of a recession, I'm sensing that the criticism is almost never levied objectively. It is almost always some way of deriding Obama in comparison to Bush, in a way that is totally factually untrue.

Is this any different from the companies who took bailout money then spent millions on lavish "conferences" in exotic places?

If you ask me all that was needed as a swearing in at the Oval Office. And the only ones really necessary were Obama, Biden, and one Supreme Court Justice.

Wait a minute wasn't it the Democrats who said we needed more fiscal responsibility? And wasn't it the Democrats who said they were going to do better than the Republicans? And they were elected to run the country not to party. They (Democrats in general) are getting off to a questionable start.

*LOL* Spending four times as much as the Republicans did in 2004 wasn't what I expected when they said they would do better than Republicans. If this is an example of their fiscal responsibility? Woah Nelly! I don't think you and I can afford it.

The 2005 inauguration only cost $42.3 million.

That price tag was more than ridiculous, we're in the middle of a recession!

Yes, it was a lot of money. But it doesn't even compare to how in debt the US is.

it was a party for the rich libs who run the DNC and couldn't care less about the poor.