[Vision2020] Wallet Feeling Light?

[Tom Hansen]

It is my strong opinion that a former president should NOT be entitled to 
any more than a pension and protective services by the Secret Service.

Courtesy of KHQ at:

http://www.khq.com/Global/story.asp?S=9711747
 
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Wallet feeling light? The cost of supporting a president
 
SPOKANE, Wash. - In 1958 Former President Harry Truman was living solely 
on his WWI army pension and told Congress he couldn't even afford postage 
stamps for "official business." Congress immediately responded with the 
Presidential Pension act of 1958, giving Truman a retirement salary of 
$25,000, benefits and a staff. 

Today taxpayers are supporting our former presidents to the tune of more 
than $2.9 million. Their yearly salary pension is $191,000. Aside from 
that, each gets a staff; that staff costs you, the taxpayer, $96,000 per 
president. Among the amenities we pay for is rent for their office space - 
President Clinton's rent in Harlem is $516,000 a year, while the first 
President Bush spends $69,000 a year on "equipment" and President Jimmy 
Carter spends $83,000 a year on "other services". The spending doesn't 
stop there. 

We are paying for President Bush's subscription to the Wall Street Journal 
which costs $242 a year and he spends money on office furniture at 
Brookstone. His total for supplies in just January of 2006 alone was 
$7,538.

Former President Bill Clinton seems to spend the most across the board. 
His phone bill from the records KHQ received from 2006 cost taxpayers 
$105,000. We also pay for the satellite TV in his office, complete with 
eight separate receivers and all the movie channels that come with 
the "entertainment package". Your cost? $1,800 per year.

Congress regulates and approves this money for our former presidents, all 
of which have a net worth in millions and tens of millions. In retirement, 
President Bill Clinton's speaking fees earned him more than $40 million in 
addition to the $12 million his book deals have put in his pocket since he 
left office.

It all begs the question, why are taxpayers subsidizing ex-presidents who 
are millionaires?

Washington Senator Patty Murray had this answer, "We expect a lot from our 
presidents when they retire. They still are a very important part of our 
Democracy, an important part of our discussion; we look to them for a lot 
of input still on issues that face this Country."

If you are wondering why President Jimmy Carter hasn't been mentioned 
much, it's because he spends far less. In 2008 he spent $518,000, less 
than half of President Clinton's $1.1 million, the first Bush 41 fell 
somewhere in between.

With the budget getting bigger and bailouts in the billions, retirement 
has never looked scarier for many Americans, unless you can 
go "presidential".

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
"For a lapsed Lutheran born-again Buddhist pan-Humanist Universalist 
Unitarian Wiccan Agnostic like myself there's really no reason ever to go 
to work."

- Roy Zimmerman


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