Grassley says critics of inauguration costs are off base

Some critics are complaining over the reported 35-to-40-million dollar price tag on this week’s presidential inaugural, but republican Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says President Bush’s supporters are spending -less- than those of a former democrat president eight years ago. Grassley says this inaugural will cost one-point-seven million dollars less than the Clinton inaugural of 1996, adding, it’s not even tax-payers money but money from private contributors. Grassley says the post-election party isn’t being orchestrated by the president, but by those who want to celebrate his victory. Grassley says the inaugural isn’t just for the president. “Let me tell you, the people who are coming out here from Iowa to see the inaugural are coming out to have their own good time. They’re coming out to celebrate their hard work in past 12 months in electing this president.” Grassley says those who gripe about the cost of this week’s event have little concept of inflation. He says probably it’s the same people who justify increased wages and increased appropriations year after year. This week’s events will be blanketed by what the F-B-I says is the heaviest security ever in the nation’s capital. Some critics point out democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt skipped having a parade for his 1945 inauguration and instead had a few people over for a buffet of chicken salad and pound cake.