With the huge amount of inaugural money, what could you buy?

[julialnyc]

http://tinyurl.com/6wcym
WASHINGTON Jan 14, 2005 — President Bush's second inauguration will cost tens of millions of dollars $40 million alone in private donations for the balls, parade and other invitation-only parties. With that kind of money, what could you buy?

Two hundred armored Humvees with the best armor for troops in Iraq.

Vaccinations and preventive health care for 22 million children in regions devastated by the tsunami.

A down payment on the nation's deficit, which hit a record-breaking $412 billion last year.

Two years' salary for the Mets' new center fielder Carlos Beltran, or all of pitcher Randy Johnson's contract extension with the New York Yankees.

A big inauguration and its accompanying costs were considered a given, a historic ceremony with all the pomp, pageantry and celebrations that the nation had come to expect every four years.

But a recent confluence of events the tsunami natural disaster, Bush's warning about Social Security finances and the $5 billion-a-month price tag for the war in Iraq have many Americans now wondering why spend the money the second time around.

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