Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Ellen Ratner
"It's our due," was the argument Vice President Cheney gave to the president for why he should proceed with a tax cut for the wealthy in the middle of a war. This same logic of entitlement provides the only reason I can come up with why this president is proceeding with the most expensive Inauguration in the history of this nation at a time when, according to the same president, we are still in a war for the future of civilization.

Simply put, the Inauguration isn't a 60-second recitation of the oath of office – it is a 72-hour party-victory lap for those who invested over $274 million dollars to keep this wartime president at war. These donors and political action men and women are entitled to a $40-plus million hoot. Florida and Ohio have been rewarded with their own separate events. It's their due, you might say.

So far, the Bush fund-raising militia has collected up to $40 million for the Inauguration. There is no pesky $2,000 limit like there is for the presidential campaign, so it's easier to collect the money – just pull up the Brink's truck to the back doors of corporate America. Soon, these donors will be pulling up their own Brink's trucks to the back porch of the White House.

Of course, this $40 million doesn't begin to cover the total cost of the Inaugural fest. For the first time the city of Washington, D.C., will have to eat over $11 million in additional security costs alone. This additional money is from the federal money appropriated for homeland security. Nor do the private donations cover the cost of the loss of a workday for federal workers. This amounts to $66 million according to the Office of Personnel Management.

Some might say I am bitter – that if John Kerry had won, I would be writing a personal check for his Inauguration and dusting off my inaugural gown. I don't deny that I would be raising a glass of bubbly, but the fact is that this inaugural bender is another example of where rhetoric does not meet action when it comes to the presidency of George W. Bush.

The post-election data is very clear. Barney and Mrs. Beasley are still eating dog biscuits stamped with the presidential seal because a majority of Americans believed that George W. was the best man for the job in a time of war. He ran as a wartime president and he won as a wartime president. Unfortunately, the president's war resume is full of rhetorical resolve, but short on action and short on sacrifice.

A downsized Inauguration would have been a small sacrifice on the part of this president and his supporters, but a powerful symbolic gesture to our troops and the families who worry every minute that they may never see them again.

Better yet, the president's donor militia could have raised the $40 million and given it to the families of service men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in a war that this president personally sent them to fight. Instead, the president is hosting a "commander in chief ball" for those who have served or will serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A commander in chief ball is this president's way of saying thank you. How about getting your checkbook out for those same service members and their families? It's criminal that returning service members have no health coverage the day they walk out of their base into the civilian world. While there is now a bipartisan bill sponsored by Sens. Sessions and Lieberman to increase the "death gratuity" for the families of the fallen from $12,000 to $100,000, why not put a down payment on that right now with the corporate donations. This is particularly fitting given the fact that many of these same corporations are profiting from the blood of these fallen men and women.

The president's approval rating is hardly a cause for inaugural celebration. It is lower than any second-term president in the last 80 years. He is right at 52 percent approval, compared with Jimmy Carter's and Ronald Reagan's 62 percent. Perhaps if this president talked less about war, about supporting our troops and acted more, he might not need to have a "commander in chief ball" to say thank you. His gratitude to our troops would be conveyed through his actions. Of course, the president's favorite "base" wouldn't get their due.