Obama vetoes cuts to former presidents' expense accounts

[mfcorey1]

WASHINGTON — President Obama took steps to preserve the office allowances given to former presidents Friday, by vetoing a measure that would have capped those expenses at $200,000 a year.

The veto comes less than six months before Obama will become a former president himself. But Obama suggested in a message to Congress that his veto was more about the "unintended consequences" the bill would have on his predecessors.

At issue: The expense allowances that former presidents get to travel and maintain an office. Obama said that by capping those allowances at $200,000, some current former presidents would have to lay off staff, cancel leases or even return office furniture.

Under current law, the General Services Administration must provide "suitable office space, appropriately furnished and equipped." The total cost of maintaining and staffing those offices currently ranges from $430,000 for former President Jimmy Carter to $1.1 million for former President George W. Bush, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service.

The Presidential Allowance Modernization Act of 2016 would have removed the GSA's role in providing office space, instead giving a flat $200,000 allowance.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/obama-vetoes-cuts-to-former-presidents-expense-accounts/ar-BBuGJ7E?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

[merrily]

1. Poor Harry Truman, often ranked one of ten best Presidents in US history, had to come to

Last edited Sat Jul 23, 2016, 09:14 AM - Edit history (1)

Washington, hat in hand, to beg for a small pension to cover the costs of being a former President.

As best I can tell, his World War I military service and being President were the only two things at which he ever succeeded.

http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/readings.nsf/ArtWeb/1C91AC0FA1A9E39E85257D1B0041C876?OpenDocument

[LuvNewcastle]

2. I think $200,000 is more than enough.

They get a generous pension, security, and plenty of opportunities to make extra money giving speeches, sitting on corporate boards, etc. Ridiculous.

[procon]

4. You're intermixing the income from their private, personal lives

with their post-presidential activities. The two are separate. As former presidents, they are still acting on behalf of the country, interacting with people from all over the world, so their service should be compensated.

In most metropolitan cities it would be impossible to rent appropriate office space, keep it stocked, maintain the high tech utilities for a modern day communications suite, have a professional public presence on the internet, and hire a couple of staffers for daily tasks for just $200K.

[roamer65]

3. This veto should be overridden. N/t

[edhopper]

5. GW Bush at

$1.1 mil? How is Dallas more expensive than New York City? (Clinton)

Still grifting off the public teat.

[tallahasseedem]

6. That is truly disgusting...

he doesn't do anything! He didn't when he was in office either.

[yeoman6987]

7. President Obama doesn't agree obviously or he would have signed the bill

I guess I don't understand why they need a staff and office at all.

[edhopper]

9. I think it was the cap below what any now

rather than a reduction or limit on increase.

[Recursion]

11. W does a *lot* with HIV-AIDS in Africa

He's a much better ex-President than he was a President.

[Doremus]

8. This sounds like more of the ongoing effort to drown govt in the bathtub

Removing GSA's role in providing office space sounds like an attempt to kill off/mortally wound/shrink another government agency so that oligarchs can step in and make it all better, for a price.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

12. Ex-President stuff

is a tiny, tiny fraction of what GSA does. I don't care one way or the other what is done in this case, but this wouldn't even put a dent in GSA workload if it were removed.

[JI7]

10. It's not like there are many of them.