The Obama Presidential Center opened its doors on June 18 on the South Side of Chicago with all the champagne-soaked fanfare you'd expect — Hollywood celebrities, former presidents, and enough self-congratulation to power a small city. Meanwhile, subcontractors who physically built the place say they're still owed millions of dollars.

The party of the working class, ladies and gentlemen. Can't even pay the workers.

Obama Foundation CEO Valerie Jarrett hyped the grand opening as something special: "This Grand Opening ceremony will be unlike any other — filled with music, performances, and hope." Hope. That word does a lot of heavy lifting when your contractors are hoping they'll eventually get a check.

Barack Obama himself took the mic and delivered the kind of line only a man standing in a building he didn't pay for could: "Our story begins on the South Side of Chicago. For me, it was here where hope took root." Beautiful. You know what else took root on the South Side of Chicago? Invoices that never got paid.

The guest list read like a Democrat hall of fame — former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Joe Biden were there. Former Vice President Kamala Harris showed up. Even former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the trip, because apparently there's no party too self-serving for that guy to skip.

But while the VIPs strolled through John Lewis Plaza, Breitbart reported that subcontractors were raising alarms about millions in unpaid work. Mike Owen, owner of Adamson Plumbing, says the Obama Center owes his company $4 million. Four million dollars. For plumbing. In a building where the champagne was flowing on opening night.

Omar Shareef, President of the African American Contractors Association, didn't mince words: "I've never seen this happen since I've been in business. The building does look nice, but the fact doesn't matter that they're not paying our damn contractors."

Here's the kicker — and it's a good one. The Obama Foundation had agreed to bankroll a $470 million backup fund to cover construction costs. How much did they actually put in? One million dollars. $1 million out of $470 million. That's not a backup fund. That's a rounding error with a press release.

Shareef drove the knife deeper, tying the opening to the calendar: "What sense is celebrating Juneteenth if our Black contractors are not getting their money?" That's a question the Obamas apparently didn't feel like answering between photo ops.

This is the Obama legacy in miniature. Grand speeches about justice and equity, delivered from stages built by people who got stiffed. A pre-opening event on June 16, a grand opening on June 18, and somewhere in between, not a single wire transfer to the contractors who made it all possible.

But hey — at least there was hope.