Federal Economic Stimulus Plan Starts in DC

It looks like there's already some federal economic stimulus being enjoyed in DC on President Obama's very first day on the job: "Inauguration Price Tag: $150 Million." {Link courtesy of DJ Chuang.] See my homemade chart below to put that number in historical context.

And this is, of course, on top of the well over $1 billion spent by Obama and McCain during the presidential election, which broke pretty much every campaign record in the books. The business of politics, it seems, is recession-proof. We certainly live in interesting times.