Those commercials with Alex Trebek are evidently right: The cost of funerals is through the roof.
The Weekly Standard did a cost breakdown of what American taxpayers forked over so that President Obama could pay his last respects to Nelson Mandela. The trip was initially reported to have cost around $11 million. But apparently someone forget to carry the 6.
The transportation contracts include passenger vehicles, SUVs, vans, buses, pickup trucks, box trucks, and “larger capacity vehicles,” but do not include the cost of travelling from the U.S. to South Africa and back. The combined total estimated cost of the two contracts is $12,521,851.
The five hotel contracts estimated a total of 10,275 “lodging room nights” spanning December 6, 2013 to January 20, 2014. The Johannesburg-area hotels include the Radison Blu Sandton, Radison Gautrain, Holiday Inn, Park Inn, and the Michaelangelo. A sixth contract for the DaVinci hotel was subsequently canceled. The total estimated cost of the remaining contracts is $6,489,627. Adding the $12.5 million in transportation contracts brings the grand total for lodging and local transportation to $19,011,478.