Last laugh: Taxpayers pay up to $2.2 million for Bush to move out

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Last_...up_to_0120.html

John Byrne
Published: Tuesday January 20, 2009

Some liberals probably would have been happy to swallow the up-to $2.2 million price tag slapped on taxpayers to fund the move-out of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney years ago. In fact, they probably would have stomached more.

That's the sticker price taxpayers will pay to fund the final act of the Bush-Cheney era -- despite the fact both men are worth millions of dollars on their own.

"Bush and Cheney will have until July 20 to spend their transition cash, which became available to them last month, according to a congressional report," Politico's Ken Vogel wrote Tuesday morning. "It says the money is 'to facilitate their relocation to private life,' including for 'suitable office space, staff compensation, communications services, and printing and postage associated with the transition.'"

The money is provided by Congress under the 1963 Presidential Transition Act, intended to help what were once cash-strapped former presidents move out of the White House.

But that's not all. Both Bush and Cheney are set to collect generous retirement packages on the federal time. Bush could rake in up to $366,000 in the next eight months alone.

Under the 1958 Former Presidents Act -- a second piece of legislation intended to help retiring commanders-in-chief puts Bush on the payroll at the pay level of cabinet members, $196,700 in 2009. Plus he's eligible for $95,000 in office rent, $15,000 in phone charges, $50,000 for staff salaries and benefits and $11,000 for travel, under legislation likely to be approved by legislators next month.

The benefits are allowed presidents as long as they live. They do not include the cost of Secret Service protection.

"The agency doesn’t disclose its budget for protecting individuals, but the Government Accountability Office in a 2001 report pegged the price tag of protecting all former presidents from 1977 through 2000 at $370 million, though protected parties typically have little say in the size and shape of their details," Vogel wrote.

Under a 1994 law, presidents are supposed to lose their protection ten years after leaving office, but no presidents have lost their protection to date.

Cheney, meanwhile, will collect a pension of $132,000 annually for his time spent representing Wyoming in the House.