BUDGET/HOLIDAY/MILITARY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A military parade requested by President Donald Trump could cost taxpayers between $10 million and $30 million depending on the complexity of the event, the White House budget director told lawmakers Wednesday [2-14-18].
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said the figures were based on preliminary estimates, and weren’t included in the president’s fiscal year 2019 budget request released Monday. The ultimate cost would depend on the length of the parade and the scope, he said… Pentagon officials last week said they were in the early stages of planning a military parade in Washington, after Mr. Trump requested a parade on Pennsylvania Avenue similar to one he had witnessed last year during Bastille Day celebrations in Paris.
That event featured more than 6,000 service members, tanks and planes overhead… Congress would have to approve any new spending on the parade, or rely on already appropriated funds, Mr. Mulvaney said at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Asked why OMB didn’t account for the parade in Monday’s budget, he said it was ‘simply because it’s come up at the last minute.’ Critics inside the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill said the parade idea was expensive and impractical.
Mr. Mulvaney pushed back on criticism that the U.S. doesn’t have a history of holding military parades, arguing they have happened before. The last major U.S. military parade was in 1991 at the end of the Gulf War.”
-Kate Davidson, “Trump’s Requested Military Parade Could Cost Up to $30 Million, Budget Director Says,” The Wall Street Journal online, Feb. 14, 2018 06:45pm