Since we are so flush with cash

good to know that the budget is being handled by the responsible, Harvard-MBA educated president-select. No deficit spending need apply. Errr....

GAO REPORT: WHITE HOUSE SPENT $1.62 BILLION FOR ADVERTISING The Bush administration has spent $1.62 billion over two and a half years on advertising and public relations contracts, the Government Accountability Office said today. And the House Democrats who requested the report immediately assailed the administration for the spending.

Democrats were reacting to reports the administration had used video news releases that didn’t identify the government as the provider of the information, had paid reporters and columnists to support its programs and had used Medicare communications to tout its senior drug plan shortly before an election.

The GAO surveyed seven departments and reported that of the $1.62 billion, $1.4 billion was the result of 137 contracts with ad agencies, $197 million for 54 contracts with PR firms, $15 million for 131 contracts with media organizations and eight contracts totaling $100,000 for individual members of the media

not to worry - this isn't a true accounting anyway:

the report didn’t survey the whole government and, in fact, left off two major government advertising programs, that of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for its youth anti-drug media campaign and the U.S. Postal Service.

For a little context of how much money that is in marketing dollars, the advertising press reports big news like H&R Block's $80 million account moving to a different agency, or Dell Computer's $250 million account shifting, etc. Granted, there are a few corporations that spent more than $1.62 billion (plus another few hundred million bucks each for the propagandists at the ONDCP and the USPS) on advertising, but not many (PDF of top 2004 advertisers). Actually, in Ad Age's survey, the US Government is estimated to have spent 1.2 billion in 2004, more than Microsoft, Citi, Viacom, for instance. Not chump change, in other words.

Of course, our troops in Iraq still can't get body armor, but gotta have priorities!

Says Nancy Pelosi:

“No amount of money will successfully sell the Bush Administration's failed policies, from the war in Iraq, to its disastrous energy policy, to its confusing Medicare prescription drug benefits,” said Democratic Leader Pelosi. “The American people know the Bush Administration is on the wrong track and the White House PR machine won't change that fact.”