The cost of protecting the Liar-in-Chief
What's being lost in the revelation of problems with paying the Secret Service agents who protect 45 and his extended family is the actual problem. The focus is on the fact our Cheeto-in-Chief insists on taking time away from the White House to go golfing, rather than the real issue.
There is a statutory cap on how much a Secret Service agent can earn in a year, including overtime pay. Last year Congress had to increase that cap, which in 2017 is $160,000. The Director of the Secret Service, Randolph Alles has approached members of the Congress to raise that amount to $187,000.
Donald Trump has four adult children. Three of them are married. They have children of their own. All are entitled to Secret Service protection under Title 18, United States Code, Section 3056. That code section does not address the difference between minor children and adult children of presidents.
It would be very easy to make an argument that Donald Trump should simply foot the bill from his own pocket to protect his family. While I believe that he should pay for his own protection on his weekend jaunts to his various properties for the purpose of playing golf, I no longer believe that he should pay for the protection of his family.
Had Hillary Clinton been elected, no one would question the need to protect Chelsea Clinton and her husband and children. Like it or not, the children of the Liar-In-Chief are targets for terrorists and the criminally insane. The wealth, or lack of it, should not factor into the equation regarding the need to protect the immediate need of the family of the President and Vice-President.
* * *
There is a separate issue. The hypocrisy of 45 having spent so much time being critical of his predecessor in the Oval Office for vacations, travel and golfing, and then going out and doing much more of those things than President Obama ever did.
If the Oval Office occupant of the moment were truly concerned about federal spending, he would lead by example. Something he is apparently incapable of doing. "Do as I say, not as I do" appears to be his mantra. Or as my late father was found of saying, 'the Golden Rule is that he who has the gold makes the rules."
You don't criticize what someone else is doing and then turn around and do it yourself. I was reminded of this as I was working on a new client's business tax return. There were large schedules of depreciation and amortization in his last return prepared by his former CPA and I started to take a short-cut in entering the data into his return. It would have worked, but then I remembered a conversation from last week.
Another preparer I used to work with had taken a short-cut in doing a client's return and as a result, the client got a letter from the IRS claiming they owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. They don't. It's an easy fix. But the client had an understandably visceral reaction to that kind of correspondence.
I will fix that client's problem when I'm in the office again later in the week. The upshot is that even though it took me an hour, I entered all of that depreciation and amortization information into the return, to ensure there will be no future issues for MY client.
If I'm going to take short-cuts, I have no business taking issue with others doing it. That's fine. Part of my work will always be dealing with fixing mistakes made by others. Just as my co-workers would fix any mistakes I've made if I weren't around to fix them myself. I am not perfect, though perfection is what we strive for.
Donald J. Trump is far from perfect. A fact he will never acknowledge.
There is a statutory cap on how much a Secret Service agent can earn in a year, including overtime pay. Last year Congress had to increase that cap, which in 2017 is $160,000. The Director of the Secret Service, Randolph Alles has approached members of the Congress to raise that amount to $187,000.
Donald Trump has four adult children. Three of them are married. They have children of their own. All are entitled to Secret Service protection under Title 18, United States Code, Section 3056. That code section does not address the difference between minor children and adult children of presidents.
It would be very easy to make an argument that Donald Trump should simply foot the bill from his own pocket to protect his family. While I believe that he should pay for his own protection on his weekend jaunts to his various properties for the purpose of playing golf, I no longer believe that he should pay for the protection of his family.
Had Hillary Clinton been elected, no one would question the need to protect Chelsea Clinton and her husband and children. Like it or not, the children of the Liar-In-Chief are targets for terrorists and the criminally insane. The wealth, or lack of it, should not factor into the equation regarding the need to protect the immediate need of the family of the President and Vice-President.
* * *
There is a separate issue. The hypocrisy of 45 having spent so much time being critical of his predecessor in the Oval Office for vacations, travel and golfing, and then going out and doing much more of those things than President Obama ever did.
If the Oval Office occupant of the moment were truly concerned about federal spending, he would lead by example. Something he is apparently incapable of doing. "Do as I say, not as I do" appears to be his mantra. Or as my late father was found of saying, 'the Golden Rule is that he who has the gold makes the rules."
You don't criticize what someone else is doing and then turn around and do it yourself. I was reminded of this as I was working on a new client's business tax return. There were large schedules of depreciation and amortization in his last return prepared by his former CPA and I started to take a short-cut in entering the data into his return. It would have worked, but then I remembered a conversation from last week.
Another preparer I used to work with had taken a short-cut in doing a client's return and as a result, the client got a letter from the IRS claiming they owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. They don't. It's an easy fix. But the client had an understandably visceral reaction to that kind of correspondence.
I will fix that client's problem when I'm in the office again later in the week. The upshot is that even though it took me an hour, I entered all of that depreciation and amortization information into the return, to ensure there will be no future issues for MY client.
If I'm going to take short-cuts, I have no business taking issue with others doing it. That's fine. Part of my work will always be dealing with fixing mistakes made by others. Just as my co-workers would fix any mistakes I've made if I weren't around to fix them myself. I am not perfect, though perfection is what we strive for.
Donald J. Trump is far from perfect. A fact he will never acknowledge.
posted by me at 8:06 PM
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