We survived The Fiscal Cliff, and the Sequester has come and amazingly a small reduction in the rate of growth to the federal government’s spending has not led to the collapse of the American economy. Granted, the president has chosen to use it to punish the American people since he has the convenience of his Palace Guards in the media protecting him. We were told by the press that if we voted for Romney we’d be electing an elitist who was completely out of touch with average Americans. I’ll be damned – they were right. That said, it’s time to acknowledge that the United States does have a spending problem, and it’s time for some hard introspection. I am calling on the president to look at his own costs to the American taxpayer and do the right thing. No, I’m talking about President Obama – I’m talking about former President George W. Bush.
Sometimes a few stories come out in the news whose timing aligns too perfectly, and last week was one of those times.Ace of Spades dropped two links about problems with funding our state pension systems. California does not have enough money to pay for its unfunded liabilities, while in Illinois payment for pensions is taking away the ability to pay for infrastructure. Add to that the story the one about Alameda County Supervisor Muranishi’s $400,000 per year for life pension and it’s not hard to connect the dots that our country has a problem in paying too many people retired from public service to not work at the expense of the public’s needs for today. But the story that piqued my interest regarding pensions from last week came when one of my generally left-leaning Facebook buddies decided to tweak me when I posted the link about California on my home page. He responded by putting up a link to a story about some other prominent retirees doing nicely on the public dime these days, namely our former presidents. In particular,George W. Bush was at the top of the list1.
In fact, Dubya topped the list at a whopping $1.3 million dollars per year. We all accept presidential pensions as part of the social contract – of all of the government jobs theirs is quite demanding and consumes more of ones life than most of us can even imagine. While I’m not happy about the $1.3 million per year price tag (or around $2.1 M if we add Bush 41’s bill), I’m more concerned about the family’s need for this much taxpayer money. Estimates have 41’s net worth around $60 million and Dubya’s at $20 million. This got me thinking, what if our last president seized this opportunity and decided to take a very proactive approach to helping his country’s ever bloating debt…
“My fellow Americans, it has been some time since I’ve spoken publicly to you. I have done so as a deliberate choice, as the words of former presidents still carry a great deal of weight. Given my understanding of the obstacles that President Obama faces, I would not want anything I say to seem to question or challenge him. That aside, I have come to realize that there is an issue that I need to speak publicly about. As it stands now my pension and retirement benefits are costing the taxpayers over one million dollars per year. Our family has been fortunate enough to have prospered in this great nation, and while I worked hard for you during my eight years, at a time when our federal government faces mounting debt I can not allow myself to be a part of it. At a time when government bodies at all levels are looking for new ways to raise taxes, we must first ensure that we are spending the tax payers’ money as responsibly as possible.
That is why I am foregoing my pension and all other benefits as a former president. Although some of my benefits, such as my Secret Service detail remain a necessity, I will reimburse the Treasury for the full cost. I hope that other public sector employees will follow this example, and evaluate each of their individual situations. I am not asking anyone to forego the pensions or benefits that they worked hard for throughout their careers – everybody has a different siutation, all the way up to my fellow ex-presidents. I understand that my pension is just a drop in the bucket of our federal debt, but if we all look within and decide on what is a fair shared sacrifice, we can help bring our country back to the road of a real and sustained recovery. Thank you and God bless.”
Sure, the cost of Dubya’s pension gets blown with just a few Vice Presidential junkets, but I’m looking at this more from a philosophical standpoint. This could also be a great way to help conservatives make public the case for reforming pension and benefit packages to retirees that are bankrupting the current generation. If we can get this conversation happening down to the state and local levels where large retirement packages make up a larger percentage of the liabilities for states and more so for localities this idea can have a real impact. Or maybe not. I don’t see too many on the people getting on board with this idea.While I generally like Bob Beckel as the leftist foil on Fox News, he defended Muranshi’s retirement package with a straight face. Sadly, I think that a lot more leftists feel exactly as he does and see nothing wrong with a completely unsustainable economic model. When we have states, counties and cities that still think it’s fine to follow the Greek model for fiscal suicide we may be beyond the point of no return. If that’s truly the case things won’t be able to get better until they get a lot worse and we all feel the effect of today’s fiscal policies.
But it doesn’t hurt to do the right thing today. And the Bush family would benefit from this as well. Such a gesture would go a long way to healing the rift between the GOP and the Fiscal Conservatives. As an added bonus it would build some credibility for their early choice for the GOP’s 2016 presidential nominee. And as an added bonus they will help the old school GOP by stealing some of the thunder of some of those wacko birds.
Crossposted from Brother Bobs Blog.
1. I had actually caught the former president story on CNN over breakfast that morning, but the idea for this post didn’t come until my buddy shared his link. Just giving credit to my “muse” where credit is due…
