What does it really cost?

So over the past month the Obama transition team has done nothing surprising to me keeping to their own for appointments to cabinet positions. All of that does not bode well for the battle cry of "Change". If you choose the people we all knew you would choose, we're not going to believe that something different is coming. I've already talked about my feelings on his pick for Secretary of State so we can move on.
Recently my wife and I began to talk about the inaguration that is forthcoming. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this one. Obama has chosen to be sworn in on the Lincoln Bible which is perhaps an interesting commentary on the beginning of rights for blacks in this country. Then he chose Rick Warren to give the invocation and all hell broke loose. This might be the first sign of change in the administration, though the though did cross my mind that he might have just wanted someone famous to do it. For those who do not know Warren he is an uber-conservative pastor of his own church that he started from the ground up a while ago. He is incredibly popular, even hosting one of the presidential debates during the campaign. So, why is an ultra-liberal asking an uber-conservative to pray at his inaguration? I mean, it's his party, he can do whatever he wants. He either thought it a good move to get conservatives to watch the celebration, or it might even be an attempt to get conservatives to like him more. Or with my previous theory of it being a quick choice of someone famous. Who knows, but we will see what happens here soon.
The other big issue surrounding the swearing in of Barack Obama as President of the United States is the price tag on the party. Originally the budget was set at 15 million dollars, which I thought was outlandish, but then again I am used to the government putting a huge markup on all they do. Then came the real kicker for me when Congress was asked for 15 million more!!!! Now, even if this is a historic event, to which more people than normal are going to come. And even with the need for more police and public transportation. Can we not throw a party for the incoming president with less than 30 million? Why the inflated price tag? It reminds me of the stimulus packages where the bill was such that if you split it up equally for every tax-paying adult in the nation it came to something over 100 thousand dollars and instead each person got less than a thousand. Where does all that extra money go? Is our government really that inefficient? Then should follow the question, if our government is so inefficient, why do we let it continue to be so? It is not the only way and can be changed with a little concern and effort on our part.
So beyond the Saddleback controversy and whether Warren will pray in the name of Jesus Christ, there is still not much to inspire confidence in change with the Obama presidency. If I am missing something, please let me know as I would be happy to post something that proves myself wrong.