Bill Clinton Has Lavish Taste, Even in Office Space
By Matt Chaban November 8, 2010 5:13 pm
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While Bill Clinton’s decision to rent office space in Harlem may seem like a modest one–imagine if the former president using taxpayer money to pay Park Avenue prices–he still pays more, on a per-square-foot basis, than any of his presidential colleagues, even after renegogiating his lease for the top floor of 55 West 125th Street.
The Journal broke the news today that the Arkansan-turned-New Yorker had renewed his presidential lease for the 8,715-square-foot office just off Lenox Avenue. Clinton, who like all former presidents is entitled to taxpayer-funded office space, netted his fellow Americans a decent savings as he shaved $106,846 off his former rent of $506,777, bringing it down to $399,931.
Yet what was more striking was a sidebar that accompanied the story, comparing the rents to what other ex-presidents pay for their offices. While The Journal did not break these numbers out on a per-square-foot basis, The Observer did and found some interesting results.
George W. Bush takes the top spot, in terms of square feet and annual rent, paying $701,636 for his 15,678-square-foot Dallas digs. That comes out to $44.75 per square foot, 14 cents less than Clinton is currently paying and well below the $58.15 he–or, more accurately we–had been paying.
Yet that is nothing compared to Papa Bush, who pays only $30.49 per square foot for an 8,709-square-foot office in Dallas. And who is charging the American people the least of all? None other than both the left and right’s favorite pariah, Jimmy Carter. The former peanut farmer, showing his frugal ways, pays $107,007 a year for his 7,682-square-foot Atlanta offices. That is a downright honey $13.93 per square foot.
Maybe he’s the candidate to get the deficit under control.
