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In reply to the discussion: A college balks at Hillary Clinton’s fee, so books Chelsea for $65,000 instead [View all]alc
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There have been occasions where one party pays another party an unreasonably high rate for one service/product in order to get another service/product that would otherwise be illegal. For example, the military buying enough $1000 toilet seats to get a replacement helicopter part for free which Congress has forbidden the military to purchase. The military got criticized for paying so much for toilet seats. And the supplier got criticized for screwing the military. It appeared very bad for both parties. In some sense it was very bad - going around Congress. In another sense it was a reasonable way to keep the helicopter fleet in the air instead of waiting for the helicopters Congress wanted built.
When a politician gets a fee that looks unreasonably high for a speech or book it is reasonable to ask if that's all they were being paid for or if there's another service the buyer is expecting (e.g. political influence). Even if the seller is unaware it can appear bad for both parties. We'd need to know the going rate for a speech like this from someone without governmental connections to know if it's worth questioning they buyer's intentions in this case.