An Expensive Inauguration!

The New York Daily News reports that next week's presidential inauguration will cost nearly $160 million. It seems that in a time of supposed economic crisis, when we've essentially squandered $350 billion of the initial bailout money, and when our president-elect says that everyone is going to have to endure pain over the next few years, I guess the inauguration is excempt from cut backs. I hope this isn't a sign of times to come where the new administration is spending wildly without really thinking about the economic consequences in the future.