Glitter and glitz for Obama's swearing-in

Washington, Jan16: It would be the most expensive ceremony in the American history. US President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration on Jan 20 is expected to cost a whopping $150 million. Obama"s inauguration expenses are likely to be to the tune of over $150 million, overshadowing the $42.3 million spent on George Bush"s inauguration in 2005 and $33 million on Bill Clinton"s in 1993, media report said.

Part of the spending includes emergency funding announced by the White House on Wednesday, Jan 14 to help with the soaring costs. If it snow during the ceremony, the costs would go up. Further, most of the funding would be to deal with around 1.5 to two million people expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony of the United States" first African
American President, a report in the Guardian said.

The surge in spending is partly because of Obama"s decision to make the event as accessible to the public as possible. Inaugural ceremonies committee spokeswoman Carole Florman as saying, “We are always very budget conscious.

But we are sending a message to the entire world about our peaceful transition of power, and you do not want it to look like a schlock affair. It needs to be appropriate to the magnitude of events that it is."The federal govt has earmarked a budget of $49 million for the inauguration.

OneIndia News (With inputs from Agencies)