The Congressional Retirement Plan™: The Bill Clinton Edition

A few years ago, I described what I call the Congressional Retirement Plan, which describes the most powerful source of political corruption–the need for a post-politics ‘soft landing’:




Matt Stoller describes a similar phenomenon for presidents:


Today, Clinton is worth something on the order of $80 million (probably much more, but we don’t really know), and these speeches have become a lucrative and consistent revenue stream for his family….But the speaking fee money stream keeps coming in, year after year, in larger and larger amounts…



Once again, the Mad Biologist is ahead of the curve. But I digress.

I have no idea how to stop this. In Clinton’s or Daschle’s cases, it’s not like they don’t receive great pensions and healthcare benefits. All I can think of is shaming people, but millions of dollars has a way of assuaging the guilt.

This is yet another reason why we can’t have nice things.

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1 Response to The Congressional Retirement Plan™: The Bill Clinton Edition

  1. albanaeon says:

    How do we stop it? We disallow any, ANY employment after serving in public office. No VP of something. No consultant. No lobbying. No paid speaking. Not even a lemonade stand. You are giving a retirement and told to go home. Even better, tie the retirement benefits directly to SS and Medicare and see how quickly those get fixed.

    The only way to get meaningful public service is to make sure its about the public and only for its service. Letting them use it for a stop to more money guarantees our screwed up system.

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