followup to my earlier "translation"

[acroyear]

Good Math, Bad Math : Apples vs Orchards: Comparing Inauguration Costs:

People keep sending me links to this, so I'll make a short post about it.

In the hubbub surrounding the Obama inauguration, there've been all sorts of incredulous press pieces discussing the supposed outrageousness of the costs of this inauguration compared to others. I've personally heard this reported on the BBC world service, CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. In these reports, the cost of the Obama inauguration is generally reported as between 150 and 160 million dollars. When they provide a contrast, they talk about how Bush's second inauguration cost $40 million.

The problem is, this is a metric error. They're comparing apples to orchards.

When they cite the Bush inauguration cost as $40 million, they're talking about the cost of the inauguration parties - that is, the cost of the festivities themselves. That cost does not include security. It does not include the cost of paying police to shut down the city streets. It doesn't include the cost of cleaning up after the crowds. It's just the cost of the parties.

The Obama figure of $150-$160 million includes everything - police, security, setup, and cleanup.

A fair comparison? If you exclude the security costs, Bush's second inauguration cost $42 million; Obama's is expected to cost around $45 million. If you include the security costs, Bush's second inauguration cost somewhere around $155 million. (The exact figures are still not public knowledge; Bush and company treated it as a "national security matter" which did not need to be disclosed.)

Yet another fake controversy brought to you by the supposedly liberal-biased media.

Comments

[ren-tigger.livejournal.com]

Just to confirm, the same figures you gave (42 mil in 2004 to 45 mil today) were just confirmed again on the news. The inly difference was that in 2004 the bulk of the money came from coorporations and unions. Obama refused to accept any of their donations, his money came from individual contributors. Otherwise, there was a close match from 2005 to 2009.

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

If you take 42 million and assume 4% inflation/year it works out to just over$49 million. 2% yields about $45.5 million. It sounds fairly comparable to me and the total cost went down in compared dollars (and for a larger crowd).