Tag Archives: speaking fees

national news

Obama veto comes back to bite him … and his predecessors

Barack Obama just had to veto a bill this past year that would have cut presidential pensions.

Then the former president just had to accept a speaking invitation in which he raked in a cool 400 grand for remarks he delivered on health care issues.

Congress may try again

Now we hear that Congress might reintroduce the pension-cutting bill that will affect not just former President Obama, but all the other four living ex-presidents.

I was mildly critical of President Obama getting paid such a huge speaking fee. It’s not that he isn’t entitled to earn what the market will pay, but only that he ought to do as CNN commentator Van Jones suggested: take a poverty tour to see how “the other side” struggles.

President Obama issued the veto in 2016. Republicans in Congress didn’t try to override it. As USA Today reported: “At the time, Obama argued that the bill would have ‘unintended consequences’ and ‘impose onerous and unreasonable burdens’ on former presidents by requiring them to immediately lay off staff and find new office space.”

The legislation being considered is called the Presidential Allowance Modernization Act. It would roll back presidential pensions to $200,000 annually, plus another $200,000 annually for office and staff expenses. The bill would roll back the pension dollar for dollar for anything more than $400,000 in outside income a former president earns in a year.

According to USA Today: “Under the Former Presidents Act, the nation’s five living former presidents — Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama — get a pension equal to the salary of a current cabinet secretary: $207,800 in 2017. They also get $150,000 to pay staff, and ‘suitable office space, appropriately furnished and equipped.'”

I get that presidents deserve a nice pension once they leave office. They have all earned it, having served in the toughest job in the nation, if not the world.

However, the legislation being considered really isn’t an unreasonable alternative to what’s on the books now. Two hundred grand a year plus expenses isn’t a bad living at all.

political news

Bush honors wounded vets … for a healthy fee

A friend gave me a heads up on this story earlier in the day.

Then I caught up with it. I am, to say the least, disappointed that a former president of the United States would actually do this.

George W. Bush spoke in 2012 to a group of wounded veterans, men and women he sent into battle. He then charged the charity event $100,000 to hear his remarks. The charity in question is Helping a Hero.

http://thescoopblog.dallasnews.com/2015/07/george-w-bush-charged-100000-to-speak-at-2012-charity-fundraiser-for-wounded-veterans.html/?fb_action_ids=10207189190992928&fb_action_types=og.shares&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B650446875055799%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.shares%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

Is there something here that just doesn’t smell right?

President Bush’s remarks were intended to honor vets wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some of the veterans who heard about the fee paid to the former president were offended. Gee, do you think?

Some of them lost limbs. They answered their nation’s call to duty — without regret. Then they listen to the former president pay tribute to them, only to learn that he pulled down a six-figure honorarium?

I get that other politicians charge substantial speaking fees. Hillary Clinton comes to mind and she surely has gotten her fair share of criticism for the money she’s made over the years.

Bush supporters say he discounted the amount he usually charges. The former president’s standard fee is about $175,000 per appearance. They also note that his appearances have raised many times the amount of money he earns just for speaking; they consider their investment to worth the cost.

OK, so he gave the vets’ group a break.

Allow me this: Big bleeping deal!

There’s just something infuriating to know that the commander in chief who sent these individuals into harm’s way would pull down such a hefty speaking fee to salute their service.