I Would Just Like to Say, I Told You So.

by Eileen | 8:45 am, January 14, 2013 | Comments Off

In 1965, Congress passed lifetime Secret Service protection for expired-POTUS’ and their sweeties.  In 1997, Congress changed its mind and decided to limit that to ten years.

Who knows why they decided this was worthy of their attention when serious budget reform never does make the agenda.  My theory is that it was an attempt by a Congress that was pissy and childish even by the standards of Congress to make some sort of point about the Executive branch.

My feelings were mixed.  I like things that save public money and decrease the amount of pomp and pageantry we afford to our self-infatuated leaders.  And, I am strictly against assassinating elected figures.  My fellow Americans were dumb enough to vote for those bastards and I want them to experience the full brunt of all the bad policy they asked for.  Also, state funerals preempt all the good shows.  But once the guy is no longer working for me and hasn’t got the launch codes, if he was a bad enough President that someone wants him dead, I think that’s just one of the risks you take when you want to run the country.

Then again, it was never enough money to matter when you look at our debt, and every Secret Service agent corralling a demented elder statesman back into his wheelchair is one less Secret Service agent eyeing me suspiciously as I make detailed sketches of key buildings in Foggy Bottom.

But there is one thing I predicted years ago – that Barack Obama would never consent to lose a single lifetime perk he had any way of keeping.  I called it – I was sure he’d reverse the ten year limit.  For one thing, if he leaves office and no one tries to kill him, his ego will be crushed.  Surrounding himself with heavily armed commandos forever will let him pretend he’s under constant threat long after he isn’t even noticed.

(Seriously, you just know ex-President Barry is going to be the worst – the sanctimony of Carter, the ego of Clinton, the ethics of Nixon…)

And he’s done just that, signing a bill to revert Secret Service protection for former Presidents to a lifetime thing.  Nice to know the 113th Congress is hard at work on the tough issues, though I guess we can call it a job creation bill.

Comments

Praise for PPC From Our Lefty "Fan"

• "Zany-ass bombast-entertainment...Hackneyed weirdo communist pseudo-nostalgia" --Alan Franklin, ProgressNow

Featured Posts

• PPC Training for Activists

  UPDATE: Something apparently got messed up with the PayPal buttons during this past weekend’s database glitch – fixed now. Yes, it’s that time again — PPC will be conducting training classes for center-right activists on Saturday, April 20 and Saturday, April 27, at Independence Institute in Denver. The tentative class schedule is as follows: Saturday, [...]

• Holder’s First Letter to Paul Precipitates the Best Filibuster Ever
• The Lamest Twitter Argument Ever Offered?
• Return of the PPC Re-Education Camps – You Know You Want to Be There
• Supreme Courts Blesses Warrantless Surveillance of Citizens in a Kafkaesque Farce
• GOP Elite and the Ruling Class
• Do We Now Get to Call Joe Salazar a “Rapist”?