Ask Mr. Answer Person: What was the cost of President Obama's visit to Decorah?

Photo courtesy of Avery Dugger

Dwight e-mails Mr. Answer Person: "The visit from President Obama undoubtedly comes at a cost, mainly (I'm guessing) for security measures required.  Just curious if there is an anticipated cost associated with his visit and where the funds come from to cover such?  Closing streets, bringing in barricades, hiring extra law enforcement, etc… all come at a cost."

Mr. Answer Person says: You're right that there's certainly a cost.  The question is how you calculate that cost.

For instance, if you pay a Secret Service agent $2,000 a week and 30 Secret Service agents spend a week in Decorah, that's a $60,000 total.  Or is it?  Because you would be paying their salary whether the President came to Decorah or stayed in Washington, D.C.

To take another example, the Secret Service just spent $1.1 million to buy a bus that protects the President when he's on the road.  How much of that cost do you assign to an 18-hour period in Decorah?

It's a little easier to calculate some costs.  There will be overtime pay for police officers and perhaps other city and county officials.  There will be the cost of housing at the Hotel Winneshiek and at Luther College.

Remember when President Obama took a trip to India and Congressperson Michelle Bachman claimed the trip "is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day?"  Several reports following the trip showed that claim was WAY overboard.

So when you hear claims that this trip is costing $1 million a day--well, take them with a huge grain of salt.

But the reason for the discussion of the cost of the visit to Iowa is that Republicans are upset that the visit is being paid from federal funds when the trip is basically a political campaign.  Said Iowa Republican Party chairman Matt Strawn, "Make no mistake this visit has everything to do with politics and very little to do with policy."

Obama's speech at Seed Savers in Decorah on Monday certainly was long on politics and short on policy.  The president was doing what every incumbent president has done in the past--use his office to political advantage.  That has meant that taxpayers, not campaign supporters, wind up paying the cost of a visit to Decorah.  Of course, if a Republican were president, they would do the same thing.  Which provides another example of why many people are fed up with politicians--they spend money and then point their fingers at their opponents.