Monday, June 27, 2011

Spending millions on state visits makes very less sense!

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Obama’s recent 10 days Asia visit attracted mammoth medialeaders... with love attention and relatively similar criticism. If for some political pundits the tour was mere rhetoric and lip service, then another group of critics found it to be quite historical. Amidst all these, the issue of a huge amount of money spent on Obama’s visit received enough criticism. According to various media reports, the US spent a whopping $200 million per day on Obama's Asia tour to take care of the President’s security, stay and other aspects. The per day cost of this so-called peace visit is more than three times the money (read aid) declared by Obama to fight child labour in India. Prior to this, the most expensive visit by any US President was that of Bill Clinton, where the estimated expenditure was $10 million per day.

Expenditures incurred from State visits by heads of states have always made a huge dent in the economy and mostly proved to be less effective. The cost of the Pope's recent visit to the UK, in September 2010 is estimated to be $32.2 million was under huge protest by the people. Thus, on Pope’s visit to Germany, a German minister stated that “…it would have been cheaper to fly all the people to the Vatican and let the Vatican worry about the cost of security!” So much so that Spain saw a massive protest regarding the estimated €5 million worth visit of the Pope, especially when Spain is planning austerity measures to check the growing unemployment and other economic malaise. Moreover, the president of Philippines, Gloria Arroyo went on 81 foreign trips in her presidential term, one of the highest in recent times. This trip had cost the economy a whopping P1.45 billion in foreign travel expenses (from 2002 to 2007)! A study by the US National Taxpayers Union (NTU) on US presidential travels from 1953 to 2001 concluded that Jimmy Carter and Ford went abroad almost eight times a year during their terms.

The problem is not only about the expenditure incurred from such visits but also the way it is increasing. At a time when major economies are undergoing economic slowdown and finding it difficult to manage funds for social development and austerity measures, and also committing to donate 0.7 per cent of their GDP as aid, cost of visits is raising eyebrows. More so, because, it's taxpayers' money. Had the money spent on Obama's visit been invested in different projects, it would have created more jobs for Americans. While one cannot negate the importance of such visits in times of globalisation where a nation's policy has global influence, rising expenditure should not be overlooked.

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