Obama Reverses Course on Corporate Donations for Inauguration
While past presidents have accepted corporate donations to help pay for the cost of the inauguration, Obama appears to have forgotten his 2009 pledge.White House officials say he is strongly considering accepting donations from corporations to offset the estimated $50 million it will cost for all the celebrations, parties, security and other logistics related to his inauguration.
In 2009, Obama raised private money to offset the costs because he barred corporations from donating. He didn't want to appear to be beholding to big business. However, this year his advisers claim he doesn't want to hit up the same private donors because most of them are drained from his incessant fund raising during the campaign.
It is noteworthy that during the 2009 process, he did accept donations from several top Wall Street executives at Wachovia, Goldman-Sachs and Lehman Brothers. He also received over $770,000 from six unnamed people who worked in financial services who bundled their contribution, according to the watchdog group Public Citizen.