Send 40 million Bush inauguration money to tsunami victims

Forgive me, but it sounded like you were finding fault with him for not having a very cheap innauguration and donating the money saved to the victims of the Asian disaster. What EXACTLY are you faulting him about in this post, aside from mere name calling, sour grapes over losing the election, etc.?

Brandon you don't care what I'm saying because you are just trying to engage in a little name calling yourself....so off the high horse..you might fall and hurt yourself.....but if you must know...I find the suggestion that bush would ever make such a selfless gesture to be, in your words, absurd...in fact absurd to the nth power....I am expressing that view...nothing more nothing less....

Apology accepted.

what apology might that be?

Innaugurations have been costing absurd amounts of money for years. Believe me, every president could have found a cause or causes to give the money to rather than spend it for his elaborate innauguration. So why did they not do so? The same reason Bush is not doing so.

Someone said earlier that they bet Truman would have done so. Well, go back and check out the cost of his inauguration, convert it to current dollars and then ask why he did not just give it away for some program or another. He didn't. So I think you would lose your bet. It is ridiculous to try to guess what someone else would do in a particular situation, and even more so when the person guessing has nothing to base their guess on.

I think it is a big waste of money to have an elaborate inauguration, but the majority of the money is donated for that purpose so what the heck. But to blast Bush for having it instead of giving the money away is just plain stupid.

Well, I know that the protesters will be spending record amounts of money on eggs this year, too, so I guess it's all good.

I have another idea .... let's take all the money that we throw to that corrupt, impotent organization commonly referred to as the U.N., and use if for a useful and productive purpose.

Jeez, Tico. What would you do without the U.N. and France? You'd be bored stiff.

True, I don't tend to complain about much else. But, I'm sure you folks on the left will give me plenty to keep me occupied.

it would be smart politics...so naturally it won't get done...as I said..it's an academic exercise to me to talk about it....

I'm sure Hillary will be back in the spotlight to keep you happy. If not, there will be some other boogeyman you folks on the right can project all of your fears onto.

Billionaire: Bush, give inaugural funds to tsunami survivors
Posted on Fri, Jan. 07, 2005
Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team.
Billionaire urges Bush to give inaugural funds to tsunami survivors
By Maria Recio
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban has a suggestion for President Bush: Cancel the inauguration parties and donate the money saved - some $40 million - to the tsunami victims.

The irreverent, outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner won't say how much he has given to the disaster victims, but his Dec. 31 proposal on his Web site has generated controversy - and support - on the Internet.

"My point was that this was a great opportunity for the president to stand up and say that we are committed to aid, but we need to take a first step towards austerity so we can reduce the deficit," Cuban said Friday via e-mail.

"A great way to demonstrate that first step would be to have the inauguration, but cancel the parties and request the uncommitted donations be donated to the relief effort," he said.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee, which is raising the $30 million to $40 million needed to cover costs from private donors, doesn't plan to cancel any of the nine inaugural balls or the three "candle light dinners" that donors of $250,000 and $100,000 get with the president and first lady. (Bigger donors get more tickets.)

"This unique celebration of American principles will not detract from the relief that President Bush has proposed and the American people are providing for the victims of this disaster," said Jill Willis, spokeswoman for the Presidential Inaugural Committee. "The inauguration is an American tradition that we should continue to honor and celebrate."

Asked if it was fair to deny Bush supporters a celebration, Cuban, who said he voted for the president, replied, "Since when is the level of celebration defined by the amount spent?"

Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, whom the president tapped to head private U.S. fund-raising efforts for the tsunami victims, support the inauguration parties.

"I don't think it will help anything in Sri Lanka if the balls were, you know, peeled back in terms of the inauguration," former President Bush said Monday on CNN's "Larry King Live." "I think they're separate questions, and the country - our country - can do a lot of things at the same time."

Clinton said on the same program: "I voted for the other fellow, but President Bush won this election fair and square. And he ought to - he ought to be able to have his inaugural. And his supporters should be able to celebrate it, however they see fit. And I don't think that it will detract one red cent from the money that we will give privately or publicly to this relief effort."

Yeah! Why should the president miss a party and a photo opportunity because people are in need and suffering? After all he donated $10,000 to the relief fund. The cheap misbegotten SOB.

I am sure Kerry would have skipped his inaugeration completely.

Let's see, we are already donating $350 million or more to them as well as the use of military forces, and no president in history has even mentioned doing what you propose. Does that about sum up Bush's transgression?

I'm sure he wouldn't have....that does not discount the fact that it would have been one of the grandest, smartest, politically and humanely brilliant moves ever. Since one of our bright politicians wouldn't have done it, I certainly wouldn't expect bush to do it. I bet Carter might have done it though, or Truman maybe. But few would, no denying that.

Politicians are all about self aggrandizing and patting themselves on the back. bush of course has refined it to an ancient Egyptian Pharoah level.

This thread is somewhat of an odd propositon; it's hard to hold it against someone for not doing something that would be really nice, but, and here's the key, unexpected.

You all know I'm no Bush fan, but I hardly expect him to cancel parties when an equivalent amount of money could be easily sent from other areas if needed.

True, it would be an unbelievably magnaminous gesture, one that would probably win a lot of goodwill, both amongst foreigners and Dem's here at home who think Bush doesn't have a giving bone in his body (like me); but who here actually thinks that Bush would cancel a party for a bunch of rich people just because some poor mofos got flooded out?

After all, remember his base, according to his own words: The haves, and the have-mores. Everyone else is a tool to be utilized.

Cycloptichorn

for forty million we could probably make a huge dent in a tsunami warning system for our own country, just a thought. I'm sure it would be cheaper to move the white house to the heartland.

Brandon9000 WROTE


Those are tax dollars yours and mine. We know that Bush acts fast and light with tax dollars. We now know he is pretty miserly with his own.

Simply put: You are criticizing him for not doing something that no other president has ever done.