Yeah? Well frankly, Obama values his visit more than he does the time and efforts of the local town whom he graced with his presence.
Which is one of the advantages to putting yourself in charge of setting market values, I guess.
FOX:
The Democratic National Committee has informed a Connecticut town it will not be reimbursed for the thousands of dollars the city spent on costs for President Obama’s fundraising visit earlier this month.
Gordon Joseloff, the first selectman of Westport, says he was informed this week the town’s request to have the DNC and Obama for America cover the $14,812 the city paid in police and fire overtime was denied.
The president traveled to the area on Aug. 6 to attend a fundraiser in Stamford and a $35,800 per person dinner at the Westport home of movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
Local officials even shut down two popular public beaches to accommodate the president. They closed the 238-acre Sherwood Island State Park so the president’s helicopter could land, and also closed the roughly two-acre Burying Hill Beach — adjacent to Weinstein’s mansion.
The New Haven Register reports that an executive of the Democratic National Committee wrote that as a private organization it did not participate in security, traffic control, fire or emergency planning. She referred questions to the Secret Service.
[…]
This isn’t the first time local officials have gotten in a dispute over payments for security costs to accommodate presidential candidates. The city of Newport Beach, Calif., for months has been trying to get the Obama campaign to pay $35,000 in security costs for a fundraiser earlier this year. According to the Los Angeles Times, though, the Romney campaign did reimburse the city for security costs at a Republican fundraiser.
Meh. It’s Connecticut. And Newport Beach. Bunch of rich white people who probably hadn’t yet paid their fair share. These cost-overruns therefore serve as a minor corrective. Tough love, if you will, from a decidedly egalitarian President bent on bringing about equality of outcome.
Besides. Spending other people’s money is easy, once you’ve learned the proper tropes for justifying it.
(h/t TerryH)
Teh Won graced Stamford with His August Presence, and they have the nerve to request recompense for the extra money they spent because was there?
I’m apoplectic. And gobsmacked.
It’s unsurprising Obama has better things to do (like more campaigning) with his campaign money than spend it on his campaigning when someone else can do that for him. Connecticut, on the other hand? Isn’t that the State built by the Insurance industry? O, wait, they didn’t build that.
That’s what they get for issuing him his Social Security card.
The ofays FO’d by OfA? Say it ain’t so.
Who will be the first brave Mayor to tell the President that he’s not welcome? Who will be the first City Council to show a little bit of spine, and command their permits department not to issue permits for road closures or public gatherings unless the organizers pay up-front for security and other costs?
I wanna see the press conference where these local guys say, “It would be a great honor to host the President in our fair city, but not so great an honor that we will spend money we don’t have.” That would be awesome.
Ah, this is a simple fix. Regardless of whether you have any issue with a deep blue state full of Democrats being screwed by Obama, there is an easy fix for this…
Tell them to fuck off. Or, if they won’t take “fuck off” as an answer, then require them to provide a $100,000 security deposit to cover police and fire OT and any other damages that might occur as a result of the visit. The president and the DNC can then pursue reimbursement of unspent funds for the next decade.
FYI, there was a similar issue here in MA where the POTUS travel group damaged an airfield and they sued for the expenses. Pretty sure they haven’t gotten paid yet either.