Speaking of the Inauguration… Who is paying for it anyway?
I’m doing my reading for LIS5661 (government info) and one small section of my book covers financial disclosure information. (Elected officials are required to file personal financial disclosure reports every year). There are quite a few interesting resources — i.e., check out the Office of the Clerk of the House (Public Disclosure Reports), the Federal Election Commission, the Center for Responsive Politics.
Of course I’m curious about the financial reports, so to practice my reference skills, I checked out the sites. Most interesting, however, was my foray to the Center for Responsive Politics. One of the lead stories on their page that caught my eye was a great picture of our president-to-be (in less than 24 hours!) with the caption of “Who’s paying for his inauguration?” Check out the link – it is really, really interesting!
The article breaks down where the money comes from – which states, industries, organizations and even which individuals donated.
Please note that OpenSecrets.org is a nonpartisan guide “to money’s influence on U.S. Elections and public policy.” As someone very well aware of how easy it is to “spin” things in politics, I recommend bookmarking this site.
Update 1/24: One of my other favorite non-partisan/independent organizations, factcheck.org, answered a recent question about Obama’s inauguration costs versus George Bush’s inauguration: Did Barak Obama’s inauguration really cost four times as much as George W. Bush’s?
