What happens to the president's book royalties while he's in office?

[Muttocracy]

Do they go into a fund he gets later? Can a President have outside income while in office?

edit for missing ?

[Captain Hilts]

1. I don't think they are in conflict at all. I think he keeps 'em.

FDR sold his speeches while in office. They sold okay, but he still relied on his allowance from his mother to keep his finances out of the red.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Really about FDR?

I see no problem with Obama continuing to get royalties from his books.

A president getting money from speeches written while serving as president, and used as a part of his presidency, seems to come closer to crossing the line of what seems appropriate.

Not crossing necessarily, but closer to the line, IMO.

[Captain Hilts]

7. To be Frank...

I don't know if he got the money, but he tracked the sales of the books.

[seaker]

4. Ouch!

Our President required an allowance from his mother??? Is that true? How have all the others managed?

[Captain Hilts]

8. Oh yeah...

Others didn't live as grandly as the Roosevelts. Money was always a problem and his mother was always glad to give because it kinda kept her in control. Whereas Eleanor realized the costs of this money and began to express her desire that the kids go to public schools in Hyde Park and that they attend public universities rather than Harvard and FDR said, 'no', and so forth. When she needed money she had to ask him, then he'd ask his mother. For this reason she began writing magazine articles in the 1920s for money.

In the White House money is weird. There are certain things that get charged to the government...when you can and cannot use the franking privilege, and so forth. When you eat on the Govt's dime and when you pay for your own meal. What you can keep and what you cannot. It's really complicated.

Other presidents, I think Truman for one, have said you come out poorer than you went in. That's no longer the case, obviously, because speeches around the globe are so lucrative.

[Shiver]

10. Truman had only his old army pension after leaving the White House

Which was about $112 a month. He and Bess lived in near-poverty for many years, managing to get by through the sale of some property his siblings and he inherited from their mother, and through his memoirs. And in the case of the latter, he only received a flat payment of $670,000 - two-thirds of which he had to pay in tax, and significant portion of the remainder was paid to his assistants, leaving him in the end with $37,000.

Truman is quoted as saying "Had it not been for the fact that I was able to sell some property that my brother, sister, and I inherited from our mother, I would practically be on relief, but with the sale of that property I am not financially embarrassed." This was said to then-Majority Leader John.... something in '57. I forget the name.

In '58, though, they passed the Former President's Act, which granted a yearly pension ($25,000 at that time; it's up to $191,000 now) to former presidents. It's believed that Truman's financial status is a large reason why the law was enacted.

Yeah, that was possibly a bit more information than anyone needed, but I'm a history geek and I like showing off :P

[Clio the Leo]

3. I just hate that he has to wait until he's out of office to write the next one.

Of course I TOTALLY understand why, but since I'm on what is now my third or fourth run through "Audacity" it sucks that I'm gonna have to wait another 8 or 10 years for the next installment. :)

[seaker]

5. Yes...

I listen to it on my ipod frequently...

[Clio the Leo]

6. I listen to it on the way home from work....

.... something about that calming voice destresses me.

[SoCalDem]

9. Maybe Cheney can put them in his "man-sized" safe...alongside

his piles of Halliburton cash :rofl: