Bill and Hillary may have made $ 109 million since leaving the White House in January 2001, but that hasn’t stopped Slick Willie from taking as much of your money as he can:
The Clintons have made a $100-million fortune since leaving the White House, but a Politico analysis found that hasn’t kept Bill Clinton from taking full advantage of the publicly funded perks offered to ex-presidents.
In fact, his presidential retirement benefits cost taxpayers almost as much as those of the other two living ex-presidents combined.
The price tag for Clinton’s federal retirement allowance from 2001 through the end of this year will run $8 million, compared to $5.5 million for George H. W. Bush’s and $4 million for Jimmy Carter’s during the same period.
Since 2001, Clinton has received more of almost every benefit available to former presidents — from his pension to his staff’s salaries and benefits to supplies. His $420,000 phone bill and $3.2 million office rent tab both nearly surpassed the totals rung up for those purposes by Bush, Carter and the late former presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan combined. As a group, they spent $484,000 on telephone service and $3.8 million on rent in the same span.
Unlike other former Presidents, he hasn’t had either the class or the decency to turn down benefits that he can afford to pay for himself:
In 2002, for instance, Ford didn’t accept a dime for printing costs, while Carter did not receive any money for his staff’s benefits. According to GAO and Congressional Research Service records, Reagan from 1996 or earlier, until his death in 2004, did not accept a health insurance benefit that two-term presidents can opt to add to their pension payments.
Clinton applied for the health benefit before leaving office, according to the GSA, and has received it each year. This year, it was $10,000, according to GSA.
And he’s gotten the taxpayers to pay the rent on his Manhattan office space:
This year, according to a 2007 Congressional Research Service report, taxpayers will fork over $516,000 for Clinton’s 8,300-square-foot Harlem office, while Carter’s 4,200-square-foot Atlanta digs will run them $102,000. Bush’s 4,600-square-foot Houston spread will cost $175,000.
Carson stressed that not all of the space in Clinton’s office is usable.
Clinton’s rent would have been less if his office were on a lower floor, according to a 2001 GAO report, which said the rent per square foot for Clinton’s office is about 4 percent higher than that of a Social Security office located on a lower floor in the same building. But the lower office doesn’t have the same view of Central Park, the George Washington Bridge and most of Manhattan as that reportedly offered by Clinton’s suite
Usability aside, we’re paying $ 38.05 per square foot for Bush’s offices, $ 24.29 for Carter’s, and $ 62.17 per square for Clinton’s — though, of course, that does include space for the interns.
