BREAKING: President Bush redecorated the White House
August 29, 2010 7:50 pm ET by Jeremy Schulman
Matt Drudge is running with the following anonymously sourced report, which is presumably intended to suggest that President Obama is wasting taxpayer money by having the Oval Office redecorated:
SOURCES: While president was in Martha's Vineyard, workers at White House have been busy installing new carpets, drapes, painting, etc. in Oval Office... Developing...
Whether or not Drudge's story is true, it simply isn't the case that "new carpets, drapes, painting" in the Oval Office would be some sort of shocking waste of tax dollars.
Indeed, President Bush -- like other presidents before him -- ordered similar types of renovations. According to a November 13, 2006, Washington Post article [accessed via Nexis]:
Over the years, the Bushes have done their share of redecorating, too, beginning immediately with a decision to replace the Clinton carpets in the Oval Office with a peach-colored relic from the Reagan years.
In January 2002, President Bush showed off the completed renovation of his office, which included Texas landscapes, striped armchairs, bronze-colored draperies and a custom-made carpet with the presidential seal. Bush family decorator Ken Blasingame worked with first lady Laura Bush on the private quarters upstairs.
It's also worth noting that in the past, the Obama's have reportedly spent their own money -- rather than using tax dollars, as they were entitled to do -- to redecorate parts of the White House. According to a New York magazine report from last March:
At a time when people are having trouble holding on to their houses, Barack and Michelle Obama have sensibly decided not to use taxpayers' money to renovate theirs. New presidents are allotted $100,000 to overhaul the White House residence and the Oval Office, and the Obamas hired Hollywood decorator Michael S. Smith (known, per his site, for mixing "Old World classicism with very contemporary settings"). But the First Couple isn't spending that money. They "are not using public funds or accepting donations of goods for redecorating their private quarters," says Camille Johnston, director of communications for the First Lady. Nor is the couple, who reported $4.2 million in household income in 2007 tax returns, using money from the White House Historical Association, a privately funded foundation that paid for a $74,000 set of china shortly before Laura Bush left town.
[...]
The White House declined to disclose the budget, saying that all expenses would remain private as a result of the Obamas' decision to absorb the cost.
/sarcasm
I wish Drudge would come out of the closet. Surely he would be less self-loathing.
The hypocrisy is more insulting to me than it is to my gay relatives.
Behold, the liberal media, creating anti Obama outrage every day of the year.
At a time when people are having trouble holding on to their houses, Barack and Michelle Obama have sensibly decided not to use taxpayers' money to renovate theirs. New presidents are allotted $100,000 to overhaul the White House residence and the Oval Office, and the Obamas hired Hollywood decorator Michael S. Smith (known, per his site, for mixing "Old World classicism with very contemporary settings"). But the First Couple isn't spending that money. They "are not using public funds or accepting donations of goods for redecorating their private quarters," says Camille Johnston, director of communications for the First Lady. Nor is the couple, who reported $4.2 million in household income in 2007 tax returns, using money from the White House Historical Association, a privately funded foundation that paid for a $74,000 set of china shortly before Laura Bush left town.
[...]
The White House declined to disclose the budget, saying that all expenses would remain private as a result of the Obamas' decision to absorb the cost.