The “impacts of sequestration are real,” the heavily left-leaning Center for American Progress reports. Yet, in some quarters, the impacts are realer than in others. Take the White House — please! Although “our house” can’t scrounge together enough money to continue financing public tours, the administration somehow came up with the needed scratch to pay for its tenth “command performance” for the President and Mrs. Obama.
Tonight the first couple will thrill to a celebration of all-American music, including compositions by Copland, Gershwin, and Ives. Er — check that. The East Room will instead vibrate to the sounds of Memphis soul, Keith Koffler informs at White House Dossier. Performers will include Justin Timberlake, Cyndi Lauper, and Queen Latifah (which I believe is a typo for “Queen of Latvia”).
“While the performances are televised and celebrate the nation’s culture,” Koffler writes, “some may wonder whether during an era of soaring deficits it is wise to stage what are also in effect private parties for the first couple.”
The Obamas wondered about that themselves during the campaign season, when they cynically suspended the performances. The last highbrow-sounding “In Performance at the White House” — as these low-brow events are called — was in May 2012. The show included performance by Sheryl Crow, Mike Myers, and Stevie Wonder.
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