The Anchoress

I noted in this post about all the folks to whom Hillary is beholden - all those folks to whom Bill and Hillary will owe something more than a night in the Lincoln bedroom, should they make it back to the White House - that the Clintons, while no longer as impoverished as they once were, are not exactly known for spending their own money when friends have vacation homes, Manhattan penthouses and private jets for their use. As Marty Peretz once wrote:

All about money. Imagine if you are a friend of the Clintons. First of all you are rich, very rich. Simply because they don’t have friends other than ones with spare and bigger than big amounts of cash. Here are the purposes for which you have been asked contributions: twice for Bill Clinton for President (and all of the skeletal extensions of the local and national Democratic Party), the 727s, the White House refurbishing fund, the Clinton Defense Fund, the Clinton Library, twice for Hillary for Senate, annual contributions to the Clinton Global Initiative, each of his and her birthdays. Was there a Chappaqua remodeling project? If you have a private jet you’d have been expected to hand it over for a day, a weekend. If you have a house in Martha’s Vineyard or in East Hampton or in Aspen or in Palm Springs, why don’t you visit your in-laws? And it isn’t as if the Clintons are asking you directly. Some underling is doing it, and you’re afraid to say “no.” Or even “boo.” $1 million here, $1 million there. Pretty soon, it’s a heck of a lot of money. You could have named a building at your alma mater after yourself with that money.

Lots of people seem to have lots of claims on the Clintons, and certainly if you have contributed millions to a man and woman of peculiar influence, you want your payback. Meanwhile, the Clintons - Bill, at least - continue to make startlingly large claims on the American taxpayer, and by the way, he wants you to know you’re getting a bargain!

The globe-trotting former president with the New York office and a worldwide charitable enterprise is seeking $1.16 million in taxpayer money for fiscal 2008. That is more than double the amount requested by fellow Democrat Jimmy Carter and substantially more than that by Republican George H.W. Bush.

Clinton’s office makes no apologies, saying taxpayers are getting a bargain.

“Given his tireless work on behalf of the U.S. government abroad with the tsunami and state funerals, including leading the U.S. delegation to Boris Yeltsin’s recent funeral, his work at home with Hurricane Katrina recovery, and his vigorous charitable foundation work to fight AIDS, climate change and childhood obesity, I’d say the American people are getting more than their money’s worth from President Clinton,” spokesman Jay Carson said.

Wait a second, WAIT a second - that’s a fast bit of razzle-dazzle and footwork but does anyone think that the ex-president, (working “tirelessly” on behalf of the US Government even - I suppose - when he is in overseas and comparing our government unfavorably to another’s and or badmouthing the current Commander-in-Chief) is actually being billed for anything while he’s attending functions at the request of the POTUS, (as with the tsunami relief, or attending a state funeral?) Please. Ex-president George H.W. Bush also went on OTUS-assigned tsumani-relief business, and he’s not asking for 1.16 million bucks! Are we paying for the expenses for Clinton’s private charity - if not why did his spokesperson bring it up, simply to tell us how grateful we should be to pay his bills? I mean, how much chutzpah do you have to have to say that to a nation?

I suspect we’re paying for his most recent photo ops with Racheal Ray as he decides childhood obesity is the next “most important crisis” in the world, after global warming, but still before terrorism (on his radar, terrorism was never very important.) Ugh…this man tires me. I know I have praised him here and there, but mostly, he just makes me so tired…it’s all-flim-flam all-the-time, even down to his expense reports; I just wish he’d find a way off the damn stage, already.

Writes Bookworm:

… turns out that President Clinton’s almost compulsive globe trotting costs American taxpayers a lot of money — this year, he’s trying to stick the people for $1.16 million in expenses. His spokespeople justify the cost on the ground that he’s simply a spiffy, wonderful goodwill ambassador for the world, (forget the fact that nobody asked him to take on that job on our dime).

The other little tidbit was the fact that Clinton has earned nearly $40 million in six and a half years. That’s not Hillary’s money. Just Bill’s. And that doesn’t even count the $191,000 pension the American taxpayers give him annually (money that I’m okay about)…it appears that he’s booked some of those [private speaking] engagements using phones he’s now trying to charge to the American taxpayers. Oh, and did I mention that he wants to have us pay an extra $10,000 a year for added health insurance, a surprising overlay given his wife’s superb Senatorial coverage?

…I guess he’s happy to join John Edwards, John Kerry and the other members of the millionaire and billionaire club that increasingly make up the “ruling class” of the Democratic party. (A point I throw in because I’m just sick of Leno jokes about the Republican’s being the party of the rich.)

If I watched Leno, I suppose I’d be tired of those jokes, too.

Look, a former president should have some of his expenses covered, absolutely, but why does Clinton need $10,000 in supplemental health insurance when his wife - as a Senator - has perhaps the best health insurance available in the United States? Why must we pay costs and expenses connected to private speaking engagements? When does either Clinton stop suckling at the taxpayers teet for whatever he/she can get?

It’s pretty damn bad when you start fleecing the elderly, too, and worse when the NYT accidentally leaks it and then goes into spin cycle.