. Former POTUS Wants $1.2 Million For Next Year Including A Half-Million Dollars For Office Space
. Ex-presidents are entitled to an allowance for an office and staff
. Former President Obama’s request surpasses George W. Bush’s by $100,000
Former President Barack Obama’s D.C. office space has pushed him past all of his predecessors when it comes to his post-presidential office space paid for by the government.
Obama’s $1,153,000 budget request for 2018 surpasses former President George W. Bush’s by $100,000, the Washington Times reported.
The request is also $200,000 more than former President Bill Clinton – who maintains his post-presidency office in Harlem.
All living former presidents could learn something from President Jimmy Carter, whose budget is just $456,000, with an Atlanta-based office.
Former President George H.W. Bush is requesting $942,000. The information was contained in an analysis by the Congressional Research Service.
The big ticket item running up Obama’s costs is his Washington, D.C. office, costing $536,000 in annual rent, and filling 8,198 of prime Washington, D.C. real estate.
The Obamas elected to remain in D.C. while Sasha Obama finishes school, and bought luxurious home in D.C.’s Kalorama neighborhood.
Clinton has 8,300 square feet in Harlem. Carter’s office expenses carry rent of just 115,000, according to the report.
Carter’s relatively short time in Washington – he spent just one-term there and hadn’t worked in the federal government before he got elected in 1976 – help keep his costs down, in an unusual feature of the report.
Since he didn’t serve five years, he doesn’t get government employer provided health benefits, though he presumably gets Medicare.
The law governing benefits for former presidents is the 1958 Former Presidents Act. Modern post presidents are able to command hundreds of thousands of dollars for speeches.
Barack and Michelle Obama reportedly inked a book deal worth more than $60 million after leaving the White House.