In keeping with his record of prolific spending as America’s 44th Chief Executive, Barack Obama has now taken his place as the most expensive former U.S. President in history.
The Washington Times noted that at a little over $1.1 million, Obama’s requested budget for 2018 “is more than $100,000 higher than George W. Bush’s request for next year, and nearly $200,000 more than Bill Clinton’s expected budget. George H.W. Bush is slated to get $942,000, while Jimmy Carter will get less than half that, at just $456,000.”
The figures come from a Congressional Research Service (CRS) memo looking into the official allowances for the nation’s five living former presidents. The 1958 Former Presidents Act allows every former president an office, expenses, and even an annual pension payment. That law is the result of former President Harry S. Truman’s struggles to obtain income after he left office in 1953.
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The Times noted that Obama’s 8,198-square-foot office space in Washington, D.C., will run taxpayers approximately $536,000 in 2018 — the most expensive office of any ex-president. “Mr. Clinton’s New York office is bigger, at 8,300 square feet, but slightly cheaper at $518,000,” the Times reported. “The younger Mr. Bush’s office in Dallas is $497,000, while his father’s space in Houston is $286,000. Mr. Carter’s Atlanta office is just $115,000.”
Similarly, Obama’s pension is also the highest, at $236,000 annually, followed by Clinton’s at $231,000, and George W. Bush’s at $225,000, according to the CRS memo. Neither George Bush Sr. nor Jimmy Carter receives a pension.
Of course, most presidents find ways to make ends meet after their time in the White House is through, including publishing memoirs, fronting sundry foundations, and, of course, serving as after-dinner speakers at high-dollar events. Obama reportedly inked a deal for an astounding $400,000 to speak at an upcoming Wall Street banking event, and scored another $400,000 in April, reported the New York Post, “when he appeared at the A&E Networks advertising upfront at the Pierre Hotel. He was interviewed over 90 minutes at the Midtown Manhattan event by presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in front of the cable network’s advertisers.”
Additionally, according to the Washington Post, former First Lady Michelle Obama commands as much as $200,000 for speaking engagements.
And as the Obamas vacated the White House in January, NewsMax reported they did so as millionaires. “President Obama’s current net worth is $12.2 million while the first lady is worth $11.8 million,” reported NewsMax at the time, citing the website CelebrityNetWorth.com.
The news site added that the Obamas “reportedly made $2,656,902 the year he became America’s first African-American president, significantly more than when he was earning $80,000 in salary from the Illinois State Senate and $32,000 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a professor, according to GoBankingRates.com.”
Analytics@American, an online business analytics program from American University, speculated that the combined net worth of the Obamas when the left the White House — estimated at around $24 million — will be dwarfed by the fortune they could make going forward, with the figure running as high as $242 million, according to the International Business Times.
Photo of former President Barack Obama: AP Images
