Forgive the uncited OP, but I can’t do a search properly from my current location:
I remember that during the Clinton Administration, Congress voted to reduce the Secret Service protection for former Presidents from life to 10 years after leaving office. Also, IIRC, GWB will be the first President to lose his protection. Given 9/11 and the other things that have happened, should they reconsider?
My stance: Yes, it was a damn stupid idea in the first place. Given that there’s currently a thread arguing (heatedly) about Andrew Jackson, it’s obvious that the POTUS can and does initiate actions with a pretty long half-life. The cost is minimal relative to other things (Alaskan bridges anyone?) and really, the least we can do is make sure these guys don’t get killed by anyone with a old grudge.
I say it is a pretty stupid idea too. One of my friends grew up in a Secret Service family. In particular, his father was head of security for ex-President Gerald Ford when he was growing up in California. I asked him if people actually threatened Gerald Ford of all people. To here him tell it, it happens all the time although it isn’t usually a big assassination plot. They are highly politicized celebrities for life after all and there are tons of nutcases out there who would love to assault them or throw things at them. People try to vandalize their houses, embarrass them in public etc.
Bush has plenty of money to afford his own in ten years but it shouldn’t have to be that way. I say, bad idea.
[QUOTE=alaricthegoth]
One wonders when bill signed the law, was he trying to fuck W, or was he trying to fuck Gore?
In 1997 George W. Bush wasn’t even campaigning in the primaries, Bill Clinton had just been sworn in for his second term that very year.
Hell, Bush hadn’t even started his second term as Texas governor in 1997.
And Gore, well, Clinton had no way of knowing if Gore was definitely in for the 2000 election or if Gore was going to win the primaries. And he certainly had no idea who was going to win an election three years down the road with participants yet to be named.
I say give them the Secret Service, but get rid of the office expenses. Once their term ends, they aren’t on the job anymore. Why pay their office expenses?
I’d also keep the Secret Service protection for life. I detest George W Bush. But, I don’t think assassination of a President or an ex-President is ever a good thing. I believe that there are too many people who might wish to assassinate an ex-President.
Nixon was hated more than any ex-president in recent memory. Yet he did just fine when he gave up his Secret Service protection, and he had no problem paying the bills of the security firms that he hired.
Financial status really shouldn’t be a qualification for being President however. Secret Service type detail for 20+ years is horribly expensive and the Secret Service has extreme backup resources if they are needed in the short-term. People will presumably threaten a President for decisions made while at the helm of the country rather than while he was in the Boy Scouts so the burden belongs to the nation.
I say that the costs to the nation, although rather intangible, are very high and the costs for protection are low (I know, it is millions but it is still low compared to the costs of the fallout of an assassinated ex-President and ifetime protection would be restored after that anyway). It should be for life.
While I certainly agree that financial status shouldn’t be a qualification for President, this isn’t really true of ex-presidents. We as a nation don’t let them starve, in the modern age.
Someone earning $50K or more per speech, and who sits on major corporate boards, ought to fund his own security.
But their lives shouldn’t depend on their ability to shill. As Shagnasty said, any assassination attempt is likely to be a reaction to their actions in office. If we want presidents who will not consider how their decision plays on the Lone Gunman Street, we should pony up the cash to make sure they don’t have to.
Yup. I’d give 'em lifetime protection as well, for the reasons stated above. But I’d, er, ahem, encourage them to help underwrite it if they’re able to - as every currently living ex-President but Jimmy Carter (and maybe even him) can.
This was pretty much my first thought. The president gets a retirement. Most of them come from either the lower to higher upper classes…so they have the money to buy the services of a private security firm. Even if they are the odd ball Nixon (who came from the lower middle class), by the time they are president they have the means to buy their own private security…and a retirement in excess of $250k/year, along with a few speaking engagements, ought to see them through in any case.
Not that I think taking away Secret Service protection from former presidents is all that cost saving a measure. Sounds like bread and circusus’ for the consumption of the masses to me…i.e. Bubbah was playing the crowd with this one. Going to save us a couple of million, maybe even gasp 10’s of million a year! Just…wow.