The Presidency has proven to be a lucrative job – but only after one leaves the White House.
While Hillary Clinton famously – and inaccurately – described her and Bill as being “dead broke” upon leaving the White House, their financial situation quickly turned around. Up until Hillary’s 2016 presidential campaign, the couple had raked in a whopping $153 million in speaking fees.
That’s not chump change. Heck, it’s not even middle-class change. That’s some elite coinage right there.
George Bush chose not to monetize the presidency, but Barack Obama is already off to a good start with a $65 million book deal, and $1.2 million in Wall Street speeches lined up to the end of the year.
It’s amusing, because in 2010 Obama said to Wall Street “I do think at a certain point you’ve made enough money,” and I imagine anything close to $70 million is way past whatever figure he had in mind as being “enough money.”
And despite that, taxpayers are still on the hook to pay the pensions of these former presidents. These pensions are no insignificant cost, as they come with a price tag of a hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. And that’s in addition to all the security costs, of course. That figure certainly isn’t much when compared to the whole federal budget, but it makes no sense to pay for the pension of someone who is earning tens of millions of dollars.
According to Conservative Tribune, however, that all may change. A new bill in the Senate could end the presidential pension for those who see high earnings after leaving the White House. The bill was introduced by Iowa Republican senator Joni Ernst, and it caps pensions at $200,000, with adjustments made every year for cost of living changes. But biggest of all, the bill could have the effect of reducing that pension to zero, provided the former President earns enough on their own.
For every dollar of earned income above $400,000, the pension will be reduced at a dollar-for-dollar basis. While such a policy would be a tragedy for a former President stuck earning $400,000 a year, that appears to be the going rate for a single Wall Street speech nowadays.
The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs approved the bill on Wednesday. Let’s hope it moves to a full vote in the Senate soon, and eventually gets to President Trump’s desk. If the bill becomes law, it will save taxpayers a ton of money each year.
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