PINCH
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Do we really NEED a $400 million ballroom at the White House?
Seriously. When the price for beef is up 17%, and coffee is up 19%, and lettuce has jumped 8% and bananas 6%, why are we building a great big beautiful ballroom? Has the President secretly been taking tango lessons?
Granted, the price for eggs is cheaper than a year ago, not sure why, but yesterday, when I added $75 to my Visa bill to fill a non-gas-guzziing Subaru Outback, I felt a pinch.
Near-daily, the President touts his Mar-a-Lago-inspired gold-encrusted ballroom. Others liken it to Nero’s fiddle and Marie Antoinette’s cake which aren’t exacly compliments. I ask again: do we need it? Pinch. Pinch.
When President Thomas Jefferson moved into the newly-constructed White House in 1801, he soon added the East and West Colonnades to connect the main residence to service buildings. Later, President James Monroe and then President Andrew Jackson added the North and South Porticos to provide covered entries for visitors. All worthy and necessary additions.
In 1902, President Theodore Roosevelt launched a major renovation of the White House, including the relocation of the President's office from the second floor of the Residence to the newly constructed temporary Executive Office Building, now known as the West Wing. The staff had quadrupled and they desperately needed more space to work. Makes sense to me.
In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt constructed the East Wing for additional staff, wartime security (including a bomb shelter), and office space for the First Lady and her staff. Then, in 1948, architect Lorenzo S. Winslow was overseeing the construction of a balcony on the South Portico when he realized the entire building showed alarming signs of collapsing. President Harry Truman immediately appointed a Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion, and Winslow began a full renovation of the White House.
Any First Family moving into the White House has the right to redecorate and make this National Historic Landmark “their” home. But it’s a temporary home that’s actually owned by us, the people of the United States. Here at our condominium complex in the Wells woods, we can’t plant a row of trees without Board approval. And yet the White House — “our” house — is now forever changed and I do not recall being asked for approval or even consideration.
From THE ATLANTIC: “Following the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Donald Trump and his allies have doubled down on their assertion that the ballroom he wants to build is essential to presidential safety. The justifications have been strikingly granular: The new building would have ‘bullet proof windows and glass,’ ‘heavy steel,’ and a ‘drone proof roof.’ Congressional Republicans have shared that the building will have seven-inch-thick windows, amid their push to get taxpayers to spend $400 million on a project that Trump once billed as a gift from patriotic donors.”
I ask, with no unkindness for those who support this, do we really it? With a war in Iran that has cost $25 BILLION so far, have we lost our common sense?
