What many won’t know is that this landmark event is going to cost the US Treasury a record 160 million dollars.

Obama’s inaugural committee is in the midst of raising roughly 45 million dollars in private funds, exceeding the 42.3 million dollars President Bush spent in 2005. In 1993, Clinton spent 33 million dollars when Democrats returned to the White House for the first time in 12 years.

As in previous years, the costs borne by the taxpayers, for security and emergency medical services, far surpasses the privately funded events.

According to CBS, the federal government has budgeted 49 million dollars for this year’s inauguration, more than triple what taxpayers spent at Bush’s first inauguration in 2001, according to the Office of Management and Budget.

Earlier this year, the District of Columbia, Virginia, Maryland and the Washington transit authority sent a request to federal lawmakers for more than 75 million dollars to cover a variety of inaugural costs ranging from security to transportation.

Carole Florman, spokeswoman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, which oversees the events at the Capitol, said this year’s budget of 1.24 million dollars is 10,000 dollars less than 2005.

Linda Douglass, a spokeswoman for the Obama’s inaugural committee, said the committee’s expenses will be greater than previous years because of Obama’s commitment to make the event as open and accessible as possible to the public.

She ticked off a slew of expenses, most notably the decision to open up the entire length of the National Mall and provide video and audio access to the swearing-in ceremony on JumboTrons.

The committee is also sponsoring a children’s concert and is allocating 700,000 dollars to the Smithsonian Institution for extended museum hours.