Summary
Olorunnipa and Lee’s (February 6, 2021) article is entitled “Trump’s Lie On Stealing of Election Costed America $519 Million Dollars and Counting”. the authors further note that this lie from Triumph had a budgetary impact because the taxpayer's fund was used for the legal fee, enhanced security, and repair of properties among other expenditures. Besides the budgetary issue, Trump’s lie, as pointed out by the authors, did mislead millions of Americans in having undermined faith towards America’s electoral system. Such misleading information propelled deadly riots, which has left taxpayers with a vast and growing bill.
The authors mention that the current total bill is at $519 million and still counting. Various government agencies have spent the cost at various levels that have used public funds in responding to actions needed by Trump and his supporters. The authors derived this budgetary information from the federal and state spending records and interviews with government officials. The expenditures cover issues on legal fees in several fruitless lawsuits and for enhancing security and response to the poll worker’s death threats. There were also costly repairs that took place during the Jan 6 th riots at Capitol Hill. In response to the insurrection, there was more massing of thousands of National Guard troops all over Washington’s streets in fears of more extremist violence.
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What’s the issue?
Trump's false spread that his opponents rigged elections has had a massive cost in that Taxpayers have been forced to spend more than $519 Million. The military expenses alone estimated $480 million in total that was used in the deployment of troops. Additionally, the overall cost in the refusal to conceded with the election results has a huge financial impact that is more than the already estimated amount. Therefore, the actual cost may not be accurate because any officials contacted during the writing of this article pointed out that they are still trying to count the cost.
The officials agree that the expenses were high in rapidly scaling up the security personnel in dealing with the threat of violence among Trump supporters. Other officials were perplexed, and others gave up the endeavor of trying to estimate the costs and financial impact that was injected by the then president, who caused a high level of instability to our democratic system. Instead, these officials opted to absorb the issue and assumed it as the cost of doing business within the Trump era.
Who is affected most?
The taxpayers are the most affected by Trump’s refusal to concede to election results. The taxpayers encountered the expenses of ensuring Capitol security of over $488 million and another $30 million in state costs. The republican and Trump’s legal team spend weeks leading to Biden's inauguration in filling a wide range of lawsuits in swinging states with an attempt to overturn the elections’ outcomes or throw out votes in delaying certification. None of them won. All the states incurred a total of $2.2 million of various legal challenges and ensured election officials' security. For example, the state of Pennsylvania paid outside lawyers over $480 per hour to work against the election fraud lawsuits posed by Trump. All these expenses were catered for by the taxpayers. Additionally, the Congress members were using the Member’s Representational Allowances that are publicly funded from taxpayer money to secure personal protective resources such as bulletproof vests to surveillance cameras and private security details, as stated by Gouldin (2021).
Evaluation
The authors have well captured the budgetary issue of high costs and expenditure incurred after Trump refused to concede to election outcomes. The authors have provided a breakdown of expenditures that came about from Trump’s false claims that the elections were a fraud. The authors have presented these issues directly and transparently. The article also highlights its statistical data sources, which are from interviews with government officials and government reports. However, the article fails to show the absolute breakdown of expenses incurred by various states, such a s California, which spent up to 19 million dollars deployed to state troopers and the National Guard. These are the same expenses incurred in other locations such as Pennsylvania, Texas, and California.
The authors have done an excellent job in mentioning that the taxpayers who are most affected because we had to finance the use of helicopters in monitoring cities like Michigan, Olympia, Lansing, and Washington as part of security expenses in dealing with potential protests. Additionally, the taxpayers also incurred expenses in ensuring security detail on and after the January 6 riots and setting up temporary fencing around Capitol Hill in response to the security threats.
The article also fails to take the readers back to the incitement followed by riots and disrespect on Capitol Hill. The authors ought to have pointed out that on January 6, 2021, Trump informed his crowd of supporters to go up to the Capitol and continued to incite his supporters with the mass voter fraud allegations. He also falsely claimed that the Voice President, Mike Pence, and the Congress could have been involved in decertifying the elections' results, which would have governed him another term in office. This background review of the events leading to the riot would add more flavor to this article because it was shortly after this speech that his supporters breached the Capitol of the US, leading to a class with the law enforcement. These riots did not just lead to the financial cost, but five people died, including a police officer on that fateful day.
References
Guldin, M. (2021). Trump's Big Lie. Turning the Tide , 33 (1), 4-4. Available at
https://search.proquest.com/openview/fed5ca8af800e18724449f4f8f0fc797/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=26897
Olorunnipa, T. and Lee, M. (2021, February 6). Trump’s lie that the election was stolen has cost $519 million and counting as taxpayers fund enhanced security, legal fees, property repairs and more. The Washington Post pp. A1, A2. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2021/cost-trump-election-fraud/
