Why the White House spends $277,000 on calligraphers

Republicans, howling over President Obama's curtailment of White House tours, have some personnel-management advice when it comes to fancy handwriting experts

For formal White House engagements, like when Queen Elizabeth comes to visit, a calligrapher is on hand to design the invitations.
(Image credit: CC BY: The White House)

Lots of Republicans in Washington believe that the Obama administration is trying to use what spending discretion it has over the $85 billion in across-the-board sequestration cuts to fulfill its dire warnings about the pain and inconvenience Americans will feel if Washington doesn't do something. So when the White House announced that, due to the sequester, it was suspending all public tours of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the umbrage was pretty thick.

"The president is trying to make it tough on members of Congress," House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told CNBC. "It's just silly. I want to know who is being laid off at the White House. The Capitol is open for tours."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.