Not that SS, although he’d fit in. Vice Presidents do not get Secret Service protection after they’re out of office but this is going to happen by decree from Bush.
I think he should have to bear the cost himself, his policys and personality are what puts him at risk.
Come on. Don’t be greedy. He has to die soon. Pacts with the Devil have a time-limit, right?
Of course, any POTUS can rescind a predecessor’s decrees. 
Blackwater USA owes him a lot. Maybe they’ll guard him for free. 
This is a foolish standard to apply to the question.
Yeah, but who’s going to guard his hunting partners?
Apparently this is fairly common :
So it is unlikely that Cheney would be getting any better treatment that the last two VPs. This is a non-story. Especially since Cheney probably has far more enemies than Al Gore or Dan Quayle did/do.
Can we have some cite for the claim that Cheney will receive SS protection?
If it makes you feel any better, Bush will be the first president affected by the new law limiting SS protection of former presidents to 10 years after they leave office.
Hey, here’s a thought for Hillary’s campaign: Elect me, and you’ll be saving money since the SS has to protect me for life anyway!
ETA: Looks like **Brickbacon **got a cite, although it isn’t clear that the order has already been given. And as noted, this is a non-story.
Indeed!
I think some sort of reduced Secret Service protection is perfectly reasonable for Cheney for a few years. I agree that this is, or at least should be, a non-issue.
I thought this was going to be about Cheney getting social security…
Looks like it’s only 6 months, as per other VPs, unless he gets another extension from whoever is sitting in the WH next year.
Oh, SS is secret service. I thought you meant the Nazi SS troops. That would have been suitable .
I should note that the only president to voluntarily give up his Secret Service protection after leaving office had so many enemies he had to make a list.
He did just fine with private security.
I’m of mixed opinion about this.
Private security can be very, very expensive. Furthermore, I will argue that even the best private security in the world is not as effective as the Secret Service (or any major state security service) a state just has way more resources to expend and no profit margin to worry about when it comes to such things.
Ideally we live in a society where anyone who is a natural born citizen over the age of 35 can run for and be elected to the Presidency. Prior to making something like $100m since he left the White House there was a genuine chance that Bill Clinton may not have been able to afford private security–at least not for the rest of his life.
Bill has had some heart troubles but he left office as a guy not on his death bed by any means. Obviously he gets lifetime protection unlike future Presidents.
I don’t really care how odious a President’s policies are, Presidents will be targets whether they are our best President or worst President. Abraham Lincoln was quite possibly the best President we ever had–he pissed people off and got murdered.
As a society that feels anyone meeting a few token criteria should be able to be President, we can’t make it such that only the super rich can “afford” to be President. It is obviously already hard enough to break into the White House without being reasonably wealthy (again, several Presidents have only be reasonably well off–not truly rich.) It honestly is out of the rich for someone who is just “well off” to afford professional private security on the level required for a former President.
So by extension, a Vice President probably should receive some protection as well–on a case by case basis (as historically they have not been near as much a target as Presidents have been.)
I’m actually a bit opposed to Secret Service protection expiring 10 years after a President leaves office. The President only has such personal risk because of service to society, society should pay for their protection for life.
The quality of a President is so subjective.
That being said, Dick Cheney needs protection to keep some whack-job conspiracy theorist from taking him out. He probably needs it more than anyone.
It’s also worth noting, while I don’t have any current figures, in 1985 before Nixon got rid of his Secret Service protection the SS only spent about $12m/year on Ford, Carter, Nixon, and their spouses combined.
So that doesn’t seem like a very meaningful public expenditure.
12m here and 12m there and soon enough we’re talking about real money.
If Cheney chooses suicide, I say, let him.
There’s a compelling reason to protect ex-presidents and vice presidents and their families - an assassination of any president in or out of office is a societal tragedy, and can have dramatic complications depending on who did it. It seems like a small and prudent investment to make sure that doesn’t happen.
There’s another good reason - if a president knows he may make enemies through certain policies, and that he won’t be protected from those enemies, that opens him up to being influenced through intimidation and fear. By giving him high-level protection, you can give him freedom to act in the best interests of the country, and not in the interest of saving his own skin.
Presidents, vice presidents, and their families should be protected for life unless they choose to decline the protection.