375f023582d099beaccc…

By any means test, he does not need this money to “get by”.

On the flip side, I wonder how his income over the last seven years compares with that of other Presidents. I will bet you a beer he is way ahead there too. With friends like Ron Burkle…

We should just be giving ‘em a pension instead of an expense account.

If an ex-president is stealing more money than another, who cares? Both are crooks.

You’re talking as if they have a fortune like Bill Gates.

So what? Let them steal our money.

Point at one politician in Washington D.C. who doesn’t.

Stop picking on the Clintons.

We’ve got more important things to worry about.

I can’t tell if this is a joke or not. That $109 Million would buy three badly needed F-22s with a little left over for a couple of training missions. It would be enough to train and equip two, maybe three, platoons of infantry. It would buy a bunch of Tomahawk missiles.

That’s important enough to worry about.

Entitled.

He makes an honest and extremely lucrative living

Ed, that word, honest, will never work in reference to any Klinton.

That Clinton is already rich is entirely irrelevant; if he’s entitled to these payouts for whatever, then he’s entitled, just like an other former president.

I’d love to know how he racked up $420,000 in phone charges. I assume that’s for his office and staff phones, but jezuz that sounds ridiculous.

Bill – you can’t take it with you. It’ll just burn up.

Did I say nothing surprises me? Allow me to recant, because one thing does surprise me.

Why aren’t they behind bars in a federal prison?

wealthy ME foreigners

I agree. Never trust a Mainer! ;)

Means testing does sound like a good idea – for quite a few things. A key word that doesn’t get emphasized nearly enough, if it even gets mentioned at all when discussing the subject, is that it’s Social Security Insurance, not the Social Security guaranteed win bingo extravapalooza. You don’t get a car insurance payout for your car being tucked safely in your garage, and you don’t expect you insurance rep to tell you that after an accident your payout will be $59.95 cause there were a lot of accidents this year, and that’s your share.

So, if any former President develops and maintains an alternate income source, be it through speeches and appearances, corporate board memberships, a book deal, whatever – there should be a direct offset for the amount provided them for things above and beyond their Secret Service detail and a standard stipend. And even on the subject of Secret Service detail – if the former Chief Exec is hauling them around specifically for functions or events designed specifically to make him some coin – well, there outta be a bill to them for that, too, which can be entered by the accountants under the ‘cost of doing business’ category….

Has any couple done less for America than Bill and Hillary and gotten more from America, than these two thieves?

he has upheld the dignity of the office

You have GOT to be kidding me! Ford, Reagan and Bush Sr. are the only ex-presidents since Nixon (too controversial to begin with) who have kept themselves above petty partisan politics and acted with the dignity Americans have had come to expect over the years from their former presidents. Bill’s conduct on the campaign trail, including yesterday’s lying about Hillary’s lying about lying, is reprehensible and anything but dignified.

420,000 phone bill

WTF? Vonage is 25 bucks / month!

And every Hollyweird swell spent a few weeks at the Betty Ford center getting their guts rejuventated. Did none of that money go to the Fords?
JiangxiDad on April 11, 2008 at 8:33 AM

I seriously doubt the Fords were making any money on the alcohol/drug rehab center. IIRC, it was merely that Betty lent her name to it for their help in her recovery.

A modest pension, sure. But we are a republic, not a nation of nobility and serfs; if a citizen desires to lead the nation, when his term is up, he should return to the same class as the rest of us.

Oh, and Ed, Andrew Jackson also came from humble origins way before Truman.