For those worried that if Jason Chaffetz acts on his mysterious threat to take the early bus out of the House, he might be missed, here’s some reassurance: No. No, he won’t.
Jason Chaffetz
@jasoninthehouse
Obama's $400,000 speech could prompt Congress to go after his pension https://usat.ly/2pyJUSb via @USATODAY Yes, it will
That’s Jason Chaffetz threatening to go after Barack Obama’s presidential pension because he made a big payday on a speech.
Chaffetz and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the sponsor of the companion Senate bill, say they will re-introduce the Presidential Allowance Modernization Act this month. The bill would cap presidential pensions at $200,000, with another $200,000 for expenses. But those payments would be reduced dollar-for-dollar once their outside income exceeds $400,000.
It’s understandable that Chaffetz wants to be seen doing something, since his job on the House Oversight Committee seems to be to stop anything from getting done. And of course, President Obama is so much worse on this point than the last Republican president, who only got … hold on a minute.
Bush has been raising his profile in a different, and lucrative, way: He has raked in millions of dollars since leaving office by making scores of speeches that typically earn him six figures a pop. … Those speeches have earned Bush about $15 million, following in the golden path blazed by his predecessor, Bill Clinton.
But then, Bush wasn’t a Democrat. And he certainly wasn’t black.
The idea of ex-presidents traveling around to give speeches is something that goes back into the 1800s. But the modern era of presidents earning big money in speaking fees has a very notable origin.
At sunny resorts from Palm Springs to the Bahamas, where he spent his birthday Feb. 6 as a luncheon speaker for Sara Lee Corp., Reagan does "a couple or three a month" of these unpublicized Fortune 500 appearances, Weinberg says. Reagan is grossing as much as $1.8 million a year from this source alone.
In fact, Ronald Reagan scored $2 million (in 1988 dollars, which is better than $4.1 million in 2017) from a single speaking tour of Japan shortly after leaving office.
Perhaps Chaffetz is going to go back and extract the ex-president’s pension from his family? Or from George W. Bush? He’d certainly go after Clinton, because he’s … Clinton. But of course, none of them are as bad as Barack Obama who scored a fraction of their fees and immediately turned around to announce that he was giving away much more than he got.
Continuing their legacy of simply being amazing humanitarians, former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama have announced a massive personal donation of $2 million to a summer jobs program in Chicago. The announcement was made, to raucous applause, as Obama detailed plans for Obama Presidential Center. The center sounds remarkable.
The original Presidential Allowance Modernization Act passed with bipartisan support, but was vetoed by President Obama who noted that the existing funds provided to former presidents covers not only their pensions, but their staffs.
In 2015, the entire benefit package ranged from $430,000 for Carter to $1.1 million for George W. Bush.
But there’s no doubt about why Chaffetz and Ernst want to revive the bill now—because attacking Barack Obama never goes out of style with their base. And it sure beats acknowledging what’s happening under Donald Trump.