Former President George W. Bush charged $100,000 to speak at a charity fundraiser for U.S. military veterans severely wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, and former First Lady Laura Bush collected $50,000 to appear a year earlier, officials of the Texas-based Helping a Hero charity confirmed to ABC News.
The former President was also provided with a private jet to travel to Houston at a cost of $20,000, the officials said.
The charity, which helps to provide specially-adapted homes for veterans who lost limbs and suffered other severe injuries in “the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said the total $170,000 expenditure was justified because the former President and First Lady offered discounted fees and helped raise record amounts in contributions at galas held in 2011 and 2012.
“It was great because he reduced his normal fee of $250,000 down to $100,000,” said Meredith Iler, the former chairman of the charity. However, a recent report by Politico said the former President’s fees typically ranged between $100,000 and $175,000 during those years.
So Bush not only charged them for the "honor" of having him raise money to help with the wounds that his lies and arrogance caused, but he also lied about giving them a discount.
You know it is at special moments like this that I really wish there were a Hell, so that I could take comfort in the idea of this POS suffering for all eternity.
But you know what, I am a reasonable man, I will settle for him being charged with war crimes and caged like an animal for the remainder of his days.
Anything less would be a travesty of justice.
Imagine how many homes could have been fitted with wheelchair access with that $175,000, Now !Jeb wants to jump on that bandwagon. Truly disgusting to be making $400,000 a year retirement pay, plus W claims more in excess "expenses" than any other president. The entire Bush family are disgusting. Never help anyone but themselves. These so called charities should be audited, find out where the money REALLY goes. Bland, beige Laura with her benign fake smile gets $50,000 a speech? I would not pay 50 cents to hear either of them. Even if they paid me, I would not attend one of their speeches. Money grubbing cretins. $carah must be salivating after reading this. So many opportunities lost.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't pay a nickel.
DeleteW. and Mrs. W. should pay ME, and I'd give the money to a real charity that helps veterans.
DeleteBefore I read this, earlier today I watched on YouTube Laura and Dub's limo getting pelted with eggs as sign-waving protesters yelled at his first Inaug in 2001. It cheered me up, to remember Barack and Michelle strolling--with no fear of getting yolked--to cheers eight years later.
So I say, sometimes things DO get better, and WE make it happen.
Laura doesn't get $50,000 for a speech. She get's $50,000 for just showing up so people can look at her.
DeleteSo the wife goes along on to her husband's speaking engagement and she gets paid just to be arm candy.
In essence he got his full $175,000 fee pretty much.
I find them disgusting and am appalled that Jeb is getting the serious attention he is.
I'm pretty sure it is going to come down to Jeb versus Hillary. Between the money, machine rigging and voter tampering that is the hallmark of GOP election strategy, I am starting to get anxious about the next four years after Obama. This country can no longer afford Republican leadership. Not only do we need to keep the White House but we need to take back the Senate and the House. That is the only way we can balance the right wing running the Supreme Court.
Every time I see his mug, I still have the strongest urge to pinch it off. Rat bastard.
ReplyDeleteI am basically skeptical of these veterans' organizations. This one, if it is willing to pay such exorbitant speaker fees surely is not worth contributions from anyone.
ReplyDeleteWhen I get a solicitation phone call from a veterans' group, I respond by telling the caller that I support veterans with my taxes and that I support Democratic candidates who have always supported benefits for veterans while Republicans, whom these organizations almost unfailingly endorse, do not.
Beaglemom
"You know it is at special moments like this that I really wish there were a Hell, so that I could take comfort in the idea of this POS suffering for all eternity."
ReplyDeletePrecisely my sentiments also, too.
Me Too!
DeleteAnd me also!
DeleteEvery time I come to the conclusion that the shrub cannot possibly do anything else to make me despise him more--he does!
And now we have to be subjected to his idiot brother as well.
I'd like him waterboarded first.
DeleteThen Cheney.
Then Rove.
And let them all share an 8x10 cell.
Gryph thank you for posting this.
ReplyDeleteI bet Sarah is so fucking jealous. SHE wanted to start wars. SHE wanted to send young warrior bodies far away to be broken. SHE wants to make a hundred grand a throw spouting idiocy to vulnerable war veterans.
ReplyDeleteNot gonna happen, Sarah. By now your name will be mud in military circles. You'll have to find another crowd to prey on.
$arah won't be happy until she's started another civil war right here within our own borders. AIP bitch!
DeleteGod-fearing bible toter, my keester!
7:10, AIP propped her up years ago, just for this purpose. She is their talking head.
DeleteI will rejoice at the passing of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove, if I outlive them. I will literally throw a little party with like minded souls.
ReplyDeleteI don't care if there is a heaven, but the likes of these make me long for a hell!
Isn't it deplorable that cheney got that donor heart? There are probably thousands of good people on the waiting list for hearts but that despicable human being got it. He jumped the queue somehow.
DeleteYeah, 7:17 AM, that pissed me off but good.
Delete7:17
Delete"Somehow" = $$$$$
I just hope the "donation" was truly an accident.
I totally agree times infinity.
DeleteDisgusting and no doubt they'll never ask the guy who got them out of Dr Evil's/Bush's wars once he is no longer President.
ReplyDeleteYou won't need to throw a party. The party will find you, it'll break out in your street and mine. If one or two of them outlive you, you can be sure that other people will be doing your share of the celebrating for you.
ReplyDeleteSarah Palin will post President Bush is charging $100,000 to speak at Veterans events AFTER she reads Immoral Minority.
ReplyDeleteWith this story rising just a day after Jeb declares Americans aren't working enough hard hours, anyone who'd vote another Bush in is beyond imbecility. There's a few more hours to this business week, so maybe old Battleaxe Babs can hang her head out a window and contribute her own stupid remark. Or maybe at last the miserable fossil is too drooling and incoherent these days.
ReplyDeleteRemembering the gal who spoke about having 2 or 3 jobs. Shrubs took that as a compliment. "That's uniquely American".
DeleteKind of like Hillary campaign in support of the lower classes while charging 250k which comes out of students families pockets. I have Canadian friends, liberals, who call that dishonest and lacking integrity
ReplyDeleteA$$hat! Go back into your cave and learn some logic.
DeleteYou know what? I agree that that's obscene. Do you agree that what Bush did is also obscene?
DeleteI'll hold my breath. Not.
Anytime someone says " I have friends..." I quit reading.
DeleteIt's just fucking batshit crazy Alicia lying again (still).
DeleteShe's not lying this time.
DeleteRepublicans, always deflecting, never answering the original subject.
DeleteAnon @ 7:20 A.M. - Fuck you, you have NO Canadian friends, asshole! Since you are always spewing shit about "liberals", us Canadian "liberals", including myself, would delight in ripping you a new asshole! Fuckin' stooge!
DeleteYou are making democrats look more unstable. And hypocritical considering Hillary charges colleges more than 100k
ReplyDeleteIt's so wrong that any private charity is necessary to help look after veterans who were damaged serving in the U.S. military. The fucking U.S. government should be taking care of their needs! As for Bush, he is fouler than the litter encrusted turds I scoop out of the cat box.
ReplyDeleteExactly, great comment!
DeleteDo you have reading comprehension skills at ALL, 7:21 AM? We're talking veterans, get it???
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of military, this just in!
ReplyDeleteRead and weep, c4pers!
http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/obama-administration-confirms-married-same-sex-couples-will-have-access-to
Meanwhile, $arah, ignored and salivating in the back of the room, bitterly mutters to herself: "that should be ME"...
ReplyDeleteYup, that was her plan with Dakota.
DeleteThis may seem a bit cruel or insensitive, but I often wonder if George HW Bush's health fails and he should die or be near death shortly before the '16 election, that sentimentality may have a lot of moderates voting Republican - even if Jeb does not get the GOP nod. Am I stretching my imagination too far? What do y'all think?
ReplyDeleteI don't think it would have the slightest effect on anything. GHWB was president almost 30 years ago and for only one term. The next George Bush tanked the country. I don't think sentimentality will obtain, beyond the normal dog and pony show trotted out when a former president croaks.
DeleteOld bastard will live many more years, collecting a pension plus other benefits. Count on THAT. Bush family does not leave when taxpayer money is still available.
DeleteI wouldn't walk across the street to listen to this idiot even if it was free.
ReplyDeleteElaine in Canada
I read this yesterday....was glad to hear Rachel had it on her show (of course). I was also glad to see at least one veteran actually was interviewed to give his opinion on how absurd this was. Like all of them, there is never enough money...never. If this stupid country would give us a Democratic Congress & Senate they would have all the resources these needy people need, end of story. I also read this so called fee was given by a private donor...which means nothing as he could have donated that directly to the charity.
ReplyDeleteHow anyone could possibly vote for another Bush borders on brain damage...total denial of history, His latest comment on people working harder is beyond explanation. Born with a silver spoon, no conscience, no guilt...his greatest achievement was giving his brother the presidency. They are exactly alike...entitled with below average intelligence.
x 100,000, Sharon.
DeleteDisgusting, GW is wealthy enough he could have donate his fee to a group that wouldn't need to exist if GW hadn't lied his way into a war because Saddam said something mean about his daddy.
ReplyDeleteDon't expect Alfred E Newman to donate that $100,000 to his lil bro's campaign.
ReplyDeleteI saw this on a few shows yesterday, Rachel did it the classy way, by interviewing a real vet and his feelings about the Commandeer in Chief (commandeer intentionally spelled that way by me) who gave the orders and sent these brave men and women to be killed and maimed as revenge for "that man called my daddy a snake" from the mouth of Saddam Hussein, the leader of the country that didn't have Al Quida until he gave the order.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but President GWBush deserves all the blowback from this money grab that gets tossed his way. He single handedly took our country's first surplus from the Clinton Administration, blew through it like Grant through Richmond, and then gave the american public a bill of goods and debt it took one man most of his first and part of his second term to dig us back out.
I'm against war to begin with, but these unjust wars sullied our reputation and place in the world. The GOP screwed the Vets by slashing funding hidden in other bills, and every line item they slashed, there were real people suffering and losing life and limb, many are understandably angry and earned the right to be made whole and be given the best care possible.
GWBush sanitized his wars, not even allowing the nation to see for themselves the flag draped coffins and wounded soldiers returning home.
I'll give to veterans causes of my choosing. Any one that invites and pays him and his airfare is a sham in my opinion. That money and then some should be returned and used for services for vets, not an ex POTUS and First Lady who have secret service and the luxury of legs to walk on. How they sleep at night is beyond me.
To any veteran or family of veterans, please know this:
I can't make it stop raining, nor feel your pain, but the least I can do is walk beside you and hold your umbrella or hand,. It would be my honor, and I'm sure many others feel the same way. "Thank You" just doesn't cut it.
If our wounded combat veterans can't be treated with the same dignity and respect as an ex-president, then we shouldn't ask citizens to serve.
ReplyDelete