Sean C. Morgan
Ex-presidents don’t cost much compared to the national debt, just a measly $3.7 million last year.
That covers their $200,000 pension, compensation and benefits for office staff, travel costs, office space and postage.
President Bush II cost us the most, at $1.3 million last year. That includes nearly $400,000 for 8,000 square feet of office space and $85,000 in telephone costs.
President Clinton cost us just under $1 million. Bush I cost $850,000, and Carter cost a meager $500,000.
I can’t imagine anyone thinks this is right, although some weirdo might contend the president has a tough job and should have his expenses covered till death. Seems crazy.
What we ought to do is discourage them from running in the first place, guaranteeing only the median wage as post-presidential income.
They should live like the rest of us in the most highly regulated condition of any American to ensure it. It might be worth it with other offices as well. After all, many others also helped create the perpetual pickle we’re all living in today.
Want a better income, Mr. President? Make policy decisions that lead to prosperity across the board, except for crony capitalists, which means a hands-off (or mostly hands-off) free market, not that Americans would like it much.
We just can’t get past this idea that our government is here to provide us something for nothing, thousands of dollars in tax refunds when we didn’t pay any taxes or have much of an income in the first place, welfare for down-on-their-luck corporations, food stamps to buy Schwan’s, defined benefits retirement packages, production limitations to prop up prices, etc. and so forth. The list could go on for pages, and almost everyone will have someone making an excuse for it – Something for nothing.
It’s for the children, after all.
That’s why we’re saddling them with an absurd $16 trillion debt that the president says is sustainable except when he noted on the Senate floor in 2006 that we’re spending more money to pay interest on debt than we’ll spend on education, homeland security, transportation and veterans’ benefits combined this year. He called it a debt tax that Washington isn’t willing to talk about.
Something for nothing.
Our ex-presidents get to use that something to further their own agenda after retirement. Let’s take it away, all but a median wage-worth of retirement income. If they make a dime more, they’ve got to send it to a charity selected randomly from a list created by a committee of Republican, Libertarian, Democrat and Green precinct chairmen from a randomly selected county in northern North Dakota.
Maybe they’ll do the job a little better. Maybe they’ll listen to real free-market folks instead of paying lip service to free markets.
I think we can do even better than limiting ex-presidential income: No more Secret Service protection. With all of today’s hate and discontent, I doubt anyone will run for the job. We win!