Taxpayers possibly helping to fund obscene Bush inauguration.

When it initially came out that the second Bush inauguration and hoedown was going to cost somewhere between $30 and $50 million, there was some justifiable outrage. Conservatives immediately went on the offensive, dismissing the critics by claiming that all of that was being covered by private and corporate donations, so what's the problem? Well, possibly, a couple of things.

First, I can't verify this one way or the other, but a number of bloggers have written that private donations will cover only a portion of the total cost. If someone has an actual breakdown on this, feel free to fill in the rest of us.

More disturbing, however, is the suggestion that these private/corporate donations are tax deductible. If that's true, then, yes, the taxpayers are footing some of the bill since, as most of us know, tax deductions and writeoffs are eventually covered by (you guessed it) the taxpayer.

So, can anyone clarify this one way or the other?