WP: Taxpayers Take Hit On Reagan Holiday (over $423 Million)

[diamond14]

Taxpayers Take Hit On Reagan Holiday
Government Shutdown Costs Millions
By Brian Faler
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, June 14, 2004; Page A15

-snips-

The Bush administration's decision to shut down most of the federal government Friday in honor of the late Ronald Reagan was in keeping with a tradition that stretches back more than 50 years. But it was also one that cost taxpayers millions of dollars in government employee wages.

After Reagan's death June 5, President Bush announced that most of the government would close June 11 for a national day of mourning. The former president's funeral service was Friday, at Washington National Cathedral.

The Bush directive affected federal employees across the country and around the globe, except for some in agencies whose missions are considered critical to national security and other essential business, such as the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Employees who were given the day off will receive their regular pay, while those who were required to work will receive "premium" pay, which, in many cases, amounts to 150 percent of their regular daily wages.

But OPM spokesman Michael Orenstein said the government employs about 1.8 million civilians -- not including postal workers -- at a daily payroll cost of about $423 million. He said the one-day cost will probably exceed that figure because an indeterminate number of federal employees will receive the premium pay.

In his executive order issued last week, Bush said the closure was a "mark of respect for Ronald Reagan." But Paul Light, an expert in governmental affairs at New York University, said it was ironic that the administration closed the government for Reagan. "He was relentless in his criticism of fraud, waste and abuse in government and would have looked on a day off for his funeral as a remarkable waste of taxpayer money," Light said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39086-2004Jun13.html

[Art_from_Ark]

1. "..relentless in his criticism of fraud, waste and abuse in government..."

only if government programs that helped ordinary people were the target. If it was in Pentagon cost overruns ($600 toilet seats, $100 hammers), he looked the other way.

[TahitiNut]

2. I gotta believe it cost the country at least $1B for that charade.

Consider the flights of Air Force Corpse. Consider what it would cost to buy all that TV time on all those channels. How many military personnel were taken from other duties - wouldn't they be more useful in Iraq? Consider the economic impact to people in D.C. whose lives and incomes were disrupted. How many people's checks were delayed in the mail?

Hell, the cost of the fucking coffin would probably feed a family of four for a year.

It was an absolutely disgusting display of misplaced priorities; an utterly reprehensible waste.

The USA would've benefited immensely if we'd just dumped the bastard's corpse on a street in Baghdad or Falluja and let Iraqis burn it. Think of how much that would have improved our relations with them!
:evilgrin:

[dArKeR]

3. I agree. Also, Papa Bush's birthday cost us about $15 Mil.

1. The SS prep
2. Military Intel. prep
3. Meals, lodging
4. Background checks
5. Event operations
6. Clean up

[Wednesdays]

7. Family of four subsists on caviar and lobster tails?

I just looked at my family's monthly food budget and...

>> Hell, the cost of the fucking coffin would probably feed a family of four for a year. <<

Family of four, my arse! More like a small village.

[hampet]

8. time to take back the coffin?

Does anyone else think we should TAKE BACK *OUR* fucking coffin???!!

This is the *PEOPLE'S* coffin!! Paid for on the backs of the poor working taxpayers.

I need directions to Reagan's Library. A tractor and a pickup from Hertz oughta do the trick.

I don't know who's worse, Reagan or Bush. But at least Bush hasn't stolen a coffin (yet!).

Truly disgusting.

[fortyfeetunder]

4. Some comparative economics are due

IIRC, there were state funerals in DC for Kennedy, LBJ and Eisenhower that I recall (Truman's was held in MO). Anyway, what sets the Reagan funeral arrangement is the length of time and logistics.

What I don't recall is whether there was a national day of mourning for the LBJ and Eisenhower services.

[TahitiNut]

5. Monday, March 31, 1969 was a day of National Mourning for Eisenhower

Eisenhower died on Friday, March 28, 1969, and was buried on Wednesday, April 2, 1969, in Abilene, Kansas. (I think they delayed a day with a funeral train so it wouldn't be on April Fool's Day.)
http://starship.python.net/crew/manus/Presidents/dde/ddeobit.html


I don't believe Nixon declared day of National Mourning for Johnson in January 1973. (He'd just begun his second term and was probably still erasing tape recordings.)
http://starship.python.net/crew/manus/Presidents/lbj/lbjobit.html

[Mari333]

6. The Bush admin used YOUR tax monies to create a commercial

by using Reagan's death as some sort of ad for their posturing.
Out of touch insane fratboys and miscreants.
In the meantime, people are barely surviving in the small towns and cities.
Worst President Ever

[hampet]

9. Small towns are dying.

I live in a small town and we are dying. We have one dairy farm left in the entire county! Everything else is being eaten up by developers.

You know the old saying: "developers are like rats. They follow the sewers"? Well, I'm leading a local referendum trying to make outhouses mandatory and indoor plumbing illegal on all new developments.

The idea is to discourage developers from building more and more houses, which just bring more and more people, which just bring more and more SUVs, which just bring more and more pollution.

After watching "The Day After Tomorrow" (two enthusiastic thumbs up btw), I'm a firm believer that we all need to band together NOW to stop this madness.