How much do WE pay for all of husseins perks?? WHEW.

[powderman]

            Discover Yahoo! With Your Friends      close        Just Explain It: Who Pays For Presidential Perks?By Zelkadis Elvi | Just Explain It – 11 hours ago        Being the President of the United States comes with a tremendous amount of pressure and responsibility. However, the commander in chief does enjoy preferential treatment most of us will never experience.
 
Some of those perks include: having his limo transported by plane wherever he travels, getting to see first-run and not-released movies free of charge, never stopping for a stop light or sign and his own private zip code.
Which brings us to today’s Just Explain It.
What’s the value of the presidency when you add in all the perks for being Commander-in-Chief?
We may never be able to put a dollar amount on the value of the presidency. That’s because some of the costs associated with the position are buried in many different budgets and scattered between different governmental departments.
 
Let’s take a look at some of the presidential perks covered by your tax dollars. They not only make the president’s life easier, they’re for security and practical purposes too.
Number one -- the president’s salary is $400,000 a year. The Chief Executive also gets a budget for entertainment, business and travel expenses.
 
Number two -- Transportation. To get the president from place to place safely, he has Air Force One, Marine One and a limo available at a moment’s notice. A 2012 Congressional Research Service report found that Air Force One costs about $180,000 an hour to operate.
According to the Hawaii Reporter, one round-trip flight to Honolulu by President Obama last month cost about $3.2 million. But the president made two of them because of the fiscal cliff crisis. That doubled the price tag to $6.4 million.
 
Number three – The White House. For the 2008 fiscal year, Bradley Patterson, a retired Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, estimated the cost of running the White House was almost $1.6 billion. And that amount didn’t include unpublished classified expenses.
The president’s White house staff also comes at a steep price. In 2012, the White House reported its payroll grew from $37 million in 2011 to $37.8 million. The list includes 468 names. 139 of which make more than $100,000 a year.
 
Number four – Secret Service access. Protecting the President takes a great deal of manpower. The agency’s budget this year is $1.6 billion. A portion of that will go toward protecting president while in office and for life.
 
And number five – Retirement plan. According to CNBC, President Obama will receive over $191,000 a year for life as soon as he leaves office.
A former president’s net worth can grow substantially in retirement. After two terms in office, The Atlantic magazine reported Bill Clinton’s net worth at around $40 million. The increase was due to numerous speaking engagements and book deals.
Did you learn something? Do you have a topic you’d like explained? Give us your feedback in the comments below or on twitter using #justexplainit.

[tom548]

This is nothing new. And the money comes out of you pay each week or SS if retired. That is one problem with this country they spend huge amounts of money and as the tax payer we have no say. And for the people who say vote them out great but if you think the guy you vote in will have any more common sense you are dreaming.  They become politicians for two reasons power and money.

[magooch]

I'm pretty sure that our country's founders never intended the Presidency to be what it has become.  Our President costs us ten times what the entire royal family costs Great Britain.

[guzzijohn]

Just look how much money was spent by all candidates throughout the election process. Somehow that spending needs to be reined in too.
GuzziJohn

[guzzijohn]

It would be very interesting to change the election process by giving all candidates a set amount of money through the government to spend on an election. They can not use any other monies either through PACS, private donation or their own. It would save some bucks and level the playing field some.
GuzziJohn

[powderman]

It would be very interesting to change the election process by giving all candidates a set amount of money through the government to spend on an election. They can not use any other monies either through PACS, private donation or their own. It would save some bucks and level the playing field some.
GuzziJohn

 
Guzzi. I do believe that you are starting to come around. THis is 2 or 3 times in a week you have made sense. POWDERMAN. 

[magooch]

Oh yeah, since when does it make sense to impinge the First Amendment any more so than the Second Amendment, or any other of our Bill of Rights.  The Supreme Court has held that political speech ($) is protected by the First Amendment.  And I for one am not ever going to be good with politicians getting their hands on our hard earned tax money for their stupid political propaganda.   

[ChungDoQuan]

We pay the President (ALL of them, not just THIS one) WAY less per year than we GIVE to, say Israel each month!

I personally feel like we should have our elections regulated like some European countries: Limit the amount they can spend, Limit political ads to no sooner than 6 months before election day, Make it a liable charge if a candidate publicly says anything bad about their opponent. In short, make them tell us what THEY are going to do to improve things; not point their fingers at what their opponent is doing wrong. Just give us the information, then let us vote.

[powderman]

Number three – The White House. For the 2008 fiscal year, Bradley Patterson, a retired Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, estimated the cost of running the White House was almost $1.6 billion. And that amount didn’t include unpublished classified expenses.
The president’s White house staff also comes at a steep price. In 2012, the White House reported its payroll grew from $37 million in 2011 to $37.8 million. The list includes 468 names. 139 of which make more than $100,000 a year.

 
 
Who could deny that this is totally ridiculous??  What in the crap could 139 people in the whitehouse do to EARN over $100,000 a yr?? RIDICULOUS. POWDERMAN. 

[magooch]

We pay the President (ALL of them, not just THIS one) WAY less per year than we GIVE to, say Israel each month!

I personally feel like we should have our elections regulated like some European countries: Limit the amount they can spend, Limit political ads to no sooner than 6 months before election day, Make it a liable charge if a candidate publicly says anything bad about their opponent. In short, make them tell us what THEY are going to do to improve things; not point their fingers at what their opponent is doing wrong. Just give us the information, then let us vote.

Again, there's that pesky little First Amendment.