E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
President Barack Obama will accept unlimited corporate contributions to help finance his 2013 inauguration, a shift from 2009, when corporate funding was barred and per-person donations were capped at $50,000.
The president's inaugural committee made the decision, which was first reported by Politico, because, they said, contributions from individuals alone would not raise enough to cover the price tag of all the events.
"Our goal is to make sure that we will meet the fundraising requirements for this civic event after the most expensive presidential campaign in history," Addie Whisenant, spokesperson for the Presidential Inauguration Committee, said in a statement.
The inaugural committee in 2008 said that its ban on corporate funding, among other initiatives, would help "underscore their commitment to change business as usual in Washington."
Lobbyists and political action committees are still barred from donating, and there will be no sponsorship agreements. All corporate contributions will be vetted and the committee will not accept any from companies who accepted TARP funds and haven't paid them back yet.
The inaugural committee also notes that these are the same guidelines to which civic organizations like arts museums and the American Red Cross adhere.
Leave a Comment:
why do they even have all the balls for re-elections? You don't hear about Senators and Congressmen having extravagant parties every time they get re-elected. It's a total waste of resources.
DISCLOSURE: I voted for President Obama . . . twice. I have also written the President expressing my disappointment in funding the inauguration. Big money and big corporations are diminishing our democratic republic. What the Dems do, the Reps do - don't make it a political party issue because they both do the same things. That is why I haven't been a member of either party and don't anticipate it down the road.
Isn't it amazing that we can find money (ie.. tax payer dollars and unlimited corporte funds) for something that no one gives a crap about, but we can't find money for important matters like reducing the deficit, reducing health care costs, improving medicare or strengthening social security. More government waste
I agree. In the mean time we kee borrowing from China printing money out of thin air.
Funds for any inauguration should be funded, just like the right of the new administration to decorate the White House (wth a certain amount of money), and have a set number and types of events that can operate within that budget. The events shouldn't be planned for and then money raised in the hopes of covering the events. I can see accepting donations to supplement the funded amount; no issues there...but this article makes it sound like this is going to be the biggest ad most expensive inauguration ever planned.
Sorry...I am tossing on the "foul" flag on this one. What makes this inauguration so much more important than wither Pres Obama's first inauguration or any previous inauguration?
The campaign paid for the "most expensive campaign in history"..that title shouldn't change the type or cost of the inauguration. In other words, the cost of the inauguration doesn't have to equal the cost of the campaign which is what the article verbiage seems to be hinting at.
Since this is an inaugural for a re-election, it really should be low-key. We don't need balls, outdoor concerts, fireworks, and B-1's buzzing the Capitol Building just because the president gets to keep his job. Keep it simple, tasteful and cheap. It doesn't need to be hotdogs and hamburgers on the BBQ, but it shouldn't cost $100 million either.
Both parties decried that the US government should not be ran like a business. Well it's obvious that maybe it should be, because it is. Legal battles and everything, that's why we are broke, and in debt, just because of that reason alone. US tax dollars are being directed to nothing more than to the wealth of lawyers and judges fat annual salaries, to make decisions only to fatten their wallets even more. Corruption, at it's best. The best part is, it's legal. The fleecing of America....LMAO
Once again Obama is up for sale
He's doing a temporary tax rate increase on the 2%er for a phoney victory for his base in exchange for savage cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Later in the fall of 2013, Obama and Congress have plans to do Tax Reform where the top income tax rates fall from 39.6% to under the current 35% rate that the top 2% now pay. Selling out His progressive voters. What a betrayal by the Judas Goat Obama. Progressives stop him from this deal.
Obama will "accept" unlimited corporate donations? How special! Mr. Obama is very experienced at spending other people"s money? He had no background in economics when he was first elected to office, and apparently hasn't learned anything in the last four years.
Just another example of corporate interest buying the presidency...and politicians in general.
I don't see the problem, it keeps the cost down on the tax payer! The right wingers tried to buy the election with corporate funds and it didn't work, the opposite of how our Prez won the election!!!!
Quit being hypocrites Bible Suckers!!!!
Well the corporations will pay for the elections either way.
1. They can fund the campaign that will be friendly to their business interests or
2. They will lose the election and will be taxed into oblivion to pay for all the entitlement promises made by his opponent.
The bottom line is the much maligned 1% pays for most of everything anyway.
Now that Obama and PSY have shared a stage, ya think for the coronation PSY will share some of the millions he has made from American's that he holds in such contempt?
Has the privileged Obama ever held a real job in his lifetime? I know trial attorney, community organizer, and life long politician do not count.
Because of our 'stupid' tax code, these same corporations will be able to write-off their contributions to the Obama coronation. So, in reality, the taxpayers might not be paying for the coronation but they definitely will be subsidizing it. Now that's a real fair tax code.
No corporate tax write-offs except for things that go into a finished product (wages, benefits, factories) and no write-offs for corporate jets, coronation contributions, fax-cat wages, limos, junkets, 'conferences' or other non-useful items. Lower the rates by 20% and eliminate those corporate entitlements.
Even if some other entity supports, sponsors, or funds ANYTHING for Pres Obama; and even if it doesn't cost them one thin dime; Republicans will still whine, moan, and bitch about how much it cost! This is the most hated president, on the GOP side, this country has ever seen. If he gets a hair-cut and pays for it out of the personal money his books or publications earn; they will STILL cry their eyeballs out!
SUPER SORE LOSERS! RACIST ASS-HOLES!...SHUT UP DAMN IT!!!
Right on...
Republicans have acted so silly and childish since Barack Obama became POTUS. They have bitched and moaned from before he was ever inaugurated. Things are changing in America as it is finally becoming what it was intended to be. This was never the home of the white people; how can it be when they raided the villages of the children of the Gahé and murdered them in their sleep; children and women included. But let white folks tell it; this is THEIR land and their country! Like hell it is!!! ...and now, they have the unmitigated gall to attack Barack Obama at every turn because THEY feel that since he is not 100% pure pale-face; so, he has no right to THEIR White House. REALLY???
Barack Obama was elected through the exact process they prescribe to hold the office of president. He even submitted 12 years of tax returns while Mitt all but refused to comply, giving a grand total of one and a half years of tax returns and those being nearly 300 pages long. Whites would rather have a corrupt, white, son-of-a-bitch in the Oval Office, rather than an honest black man. So what do they do? THEY keep trying their damndest to prove him unworthy and incapable; though they have never even gotten close to proving that he isn't. SOoooooo GODDAMN CHILDISH!
Pres Obama won fair and square both times while the GOP tried to cheat their way into the White House but Pres Obama is the crook! REALLY???? Now they dare whine about the cost of his second inauguration as though the money is coming from their own pockets. RACIST PIGS!
Pres Obama can do NOTHING right in their eyesight because the truth is; this country has always hated blacks ever since we stopped being their slaves and ever since they could no longer hang a black man from the nearest tree for looking at a white woman. I rejoice in that not all whites are racist thugs who chew tobacco and spit it out on their own shirt and then wipe their mouths with their shirt sleeve; AND these are the ones who are whining the most!
I can hear them now; "Oh, its not about his RACE! Its his politics that I hate!" What? The politics of doing a pretty good job of saving this nation from the mess Dubya made? YEAH; why can't Pres Obama run this country without spending a single dime? What's wrong with that boy, huh???
Right on Pres Barack Obama...right on til the morning sir! AND again I say...
Right on...
One last shake down of corporate contributors.
Keep it simple...America is on a budget.
No he will make it grand since this will be his last one...thank God!