奥巴马演讲一场赚40万美元 美国会或立法削减其退休金
美国前总统奥巴马卸任后开启“捞金”生涯,他以40万美元(约合276万元人民币)的高价接下了一家华尔街投行的演讲邀请。奥巴马的超高“出场费”似乎令外界不满。据外媒报道,美国会共和党议员怒批奥巴马“虚伪”,并准备推动国会立法削减奥巴马的退休金。 Congress may seek to cut the pension of Barack Obama following his decision to accept a $400,000 fee for an upcoming speech to Wall Street executives. During his time in the White House, Mr Obama vetoed a bill that would have capped the retirement funds of former presidents should they accept large sums of outside income. Now that Mr Obama himself meets those criteria, Republican sponsors of the bill have said they will revive the legislation and hope that President Donald Trump signs it into law. "The Obama hypocrisy on this issue is revealing," Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and sponsor of the 2016 bill told USA Today. "His veto was very self-serving." Mr Chaffetz, and Jodi Ernst, a Republican senator from Iowa, who sponsored the companion bill in the Senate, have announced that they will re-introduce the Presidential Allowance Modernization Act this month. The bill would caps presidential pensions at $200,000, plus the same for expenses. But those payments would be reduced dollar-for-dollar once their outside income exceeds $400,000. When it was first introduced last year, Mr Obama vetoed the legislation on the basis that it would force former presidents to fire their support staff. Mr Obama said that capping the expenses at this amount would cripple the initiatives of several former presidents, forcing them to lay off staff, and cancel office leases. Currently the General Services Administration must provide "suitable office space, appropriately furnished and equipped". The total cost of maintaining and staffing those offices currently ranges from $430,000 for former president Jimmy Carter to $1.1 million for former president George W. Bush, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service cited by USA Today. The 2017 spending bill approved by Congress this week contained nearly $3.9 million to fund all the former presidents until the 30th September. Mr Trump has not commented on the legislation. But during the campaign, he said he'd take a close look at pensions for elected officials. Mr Obama and Michelle, his wife, have already signed a publishing deal for two separate books that combined is worth $65 million according to the Financial Times. The former president has drawn fierce criticism for accepting the speaking engagement at the investment firm Cantor Fitzgerald's health care conference in September. Bernie Sanders, the Democratic senator from Vermont, called the decision "distasteful". A spokesman for Mr Obama dismissed the idea that in accepting the fee Mr Obama was compromising his principles. "As we announced months ago, President Obama will deliver speeches from time to time," Eric Schultz, a senior adviser to Obama, said in a statement Wednesday. "Some of those speeches will be paid, some will be unpaid, and regardless of venue or sponsor, President Obama will be true to his values, his vision, and his record." "With regard to this or any speech involving Wall Street sponsors, I'd just point out that in 2008, Barack Obama raised more money from Wall Street than any candidate in history -- and still went on to successfully pass and implement the toughest reforms on Wall Street since Franklin D Roosevelt," he added. |