Posted on May 10, 2016
Obama To Spend $1 Billion On Monument To Himself
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It was recently announced that President Obama plans to raise $1 billion to build his presidential library in Chicago. By any standard, that's an eye-popping figure. It's nearly as much as Obama spent on his 2012 campaign for president.
In the Chicago Tribune, Dan McGinn has a column that's well worth your time. It puts the $1 billion figure in historical perspective:
In the last 60 years, the cost of building and maintaining presidential libraries has accelerated and expanded in ways that Roosevelt and Truman never imagined. Lyndon Johnson's library cost 10 times as much as Truman's. Ronald Reagan's was triple the cost of Johnson's. George H.W. Bush doubled the Reagan budget. Bill Clinton then doubled Bush.
George W. Bush raised $500 million to build and endow his shrine. And now Obama is set to double that mark. So, in a span of about 60 years, the price of a presidential library has gone from less than $2 million to $1 billion and counting.
Where does this end? Would a President Hillary Clinton seek to top both her predecessor and her husband with a $2 billion extravaganza in New York? Or would a President Donald Trump ... OK, we know the kind of facility he would build.
While the academic study of presidents is important, it's not this important. And spending this much on a facility to house the records of a man who was more or less the least transparent president in modern history, combined with the fact that the ambitious and controversial plans for the library involve destroying a good deal of rare and precious greenspace in a black working class neighborhood in Chicago ... well, the irony abounds.
Obama is undoubtedly good at raising money. It would be nice if he put that skill to better use than building and endowing such a needlessly expensive library.
@SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas , Capt Christopher Mueller , CPT (Join to see) , COL Mikel J. Burroughs , Sgt Joe LaBranche , SSgt (Join to see), TSgt Hunter Logan Capt Seid Waddell SrA Christopher Wright LTC Stephen F. PO2 Ed C. PO2 Mark Saffell MSG Tom Earley PVT James Strait Alan K. @po1 william "chip" PO1 William "Chip" Nagel Maj Kim Patterson
In the Chicago Tribune, Dan McGinn has a column that's well worth your time. It puts the $1 billion figure in historical perspective:
In the last 60 years, the cost of building and maintaining presidential libraries has accelerated and expanded in ways that Roosevelt and Truman never imagined. Lyndon Johnson's library cost 10 times as much as Truman's. Ronald Reagan's was triple the cost of Johnson's. George H.W. Bush doubled the Reagan budget. Bill Clinton then doubled Bush.
George W. Bush raised $500 million to build and endow his shrine. And now Obama is set to double that mark. So, in a span of about 60 years, the price of a presidential library has gone from less than $2 million to $1 billion and counting.
Where does this end? Would a President Hillary Clinton seek to top both her predecessor and her husband with a $2 billion extravaganza in New York? Or would a President Donald Trump ... OK, we know the kind of facility he would build.
While the academic study of presidents is important, it's not this important. And spending this much on a facility to house the records of a man who was more or less the least transparent president in modern history, combined with the fact that the ambitious and controversial plans for the library involve destroying a good deal of rare and precious greenspace in a black working class neighborhood in Chicago ... well, the irony abounds.
Obama is undoubtedly good at raising money. It would be nice if he put that skill to better use than building and endowing such a needlessly expensive library.
@SMSgt Minister Gerald A. Thomas , Capt Christopher Mueller , CPT (Join to see) , COL Mikel J. Burroughs , Sgt Joe LaBranche , SSgt (Join to see), TSgt Hunter Logan Capt Seid Waddell SrA Christopher Wright LTC Stephen F. PO2 Ed C. PO2 Mark Saffell MSG Tom Earley PVT James Strait Alan K. @po1 william "chip" PO1 William "Chip" Nagel Maj Kim Patterson
Obama To Spend $1 Billion On Monument To Himself
Posted from weeklystandard.com
Office of the President (POTUS)
Barack Obama
American History
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 16
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One Billion to commemorate a presidency that can be covered in a paperback book. Kennedy's is a shrine, LBJ's covers Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement, Reagan won the Cold War, Clinton got impeached...Obama, well he...Then there was...OH I remember, he....nevermind.
He fouled up the healthcare system, pulled out of a war before we won, and blamed the takeover of a US Embassy and murder of an Ambassador and US Military Personnel on a video...Yep his accomplishments are so very very numerous that a book about them would have room left over for your favorite recipes.
He fouled up the healthcare system, pulled out of a war before we won, and blamed the takeover of a US Embassy and murder of an Ambassador and US Military Personnel on a video...Yep his accomplishments are so very very numerous that a book about them would have room left over for your favorite recipes.
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SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth
Would the book be fiction, or non-fiction. Or it could be a crime novel.
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1LT (Join to see)
CPO Frank Coluccio - Well the current front runner of the Republican Party is readind and writing at 3rd grade level. I am not surprised.
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Well it fits. He is one of the biggest narcissistic whores of all time, so why not the most expensive "Presidential" library.
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Well his monument should help reduce the crime rate, reform the corrupt politicians, clean up the city, feed and house the homeless, stop the racial devide, and insure the Cubs will win the World Series! Dang, why don't we just put a monument of him in every state.
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SSG Roger Ayscue
" Hey Everybody....HARRY CARAY Here...we have an exciting thing here in Chicago for you...Not that the CUBS WIN! But the Obama Library is here....And anyone that comes out to the ballpark tomorrow night with a receipt for a donation to the Obama Library gets in for the Regular Price but they will get a Free Enamel Pin from Florsheim Shoes...They have Leather tongues, soles and heels...Obama wears Florsheim and so should you. Tito Fuentez is the next batter up for Chicago and I am going to wash down this Hot Dog with an Ice Cold Budweiser"
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