Presidential Perks Gone Royal Read online

  President Clinton invited many big givers to enjoy overnight stays in the Lincoln Bedroom. Nancy Reagan bunked Frank and Barbara Sinatra in the Queens’ Suite. One of President Ford’s sons was said to have boasted of entertaining a girlfriend on the big four-poster bed in the Queens’ Suite.

  As you can see, far from being restricted to one end of the White House, the entire and enormous fifth floor is for the exclusive use of the first family, either personally or to accommodate first family relatives, guests, campaign contributors or friends.

  In addition to all that space on the fifth floor, plus the movie theater and presidential library on the third floor, plus the larger first family private dining room on the fourth floor, the first family also enjoys exclusive use of the atrium and the entire sixth floor. On that sixth floor are 20 more bedrooms, a large corridor, nine bathrooms, an exercise room and a game room with billiard and ping-pong tables. Relatives and the first family’s young children and sleepover guests, unless they are given the Queen’s Rooms or the Lincoln Suite, usually have their rooms on the sixth floor.

  There are also some “gems” on the top floor: the Red Sitting Room and an octagonal Solarium with three walls of glass that is so large and light-filled that Mrs. Coolidge called the Solarium the “Sky Parlor.”

  Curious presidential guests quartered in the Queens’ Rooms have discovered the hidden door that opens onto a staircase accessing the Solarium. A ramp from the Solarium leads to the top floor of the White House where presidents get to hone their barbeque skills away from prying eyes and where young members of first families and their friends can sunbathe in private.

  In addition to its bountiful spaces on the top two floors, the first family has exclusive use of the large family dining room on the fourth floor and likewise, on the third floor, the 50-loge-seat movie theater, the Map Room, the China Room, the Vermeil Room and the White House Library. None of these rooms are open to the public.

  First families are quick to point out that, of all the domiciles housing the world’s heads of state, ”their” White House is the only such residence open to the public. They say that it is often referred to as the “Peoples’ house,” but as you can see, that’s strictly not so.

  Security concerns dictate that when the public is allowed on sightseeing tours (excluding the private areas, residential suites and other extensively restricted areas) visits are always regimented in the extreme. Limited members of the public can walk past (but not into) the president’s movie theater, past (but not into) the historic China Room, past (but not into) the Vermeil Room, past (but not into) the White House Library, past (but not into) the Diplomatic Reception Room, and past (but not into) the large family dining area north of the State Dining Room.

  Like hidden parts of a castle or manor house, the public does not get to see the unmarked door in a long corridor that stretches between two busts of World War II era allied leaders, Sir Winston Churchill and Dwight D. Eisenhower. This same door allows the president to access the nearby Treasury Building through a labyrinth of storage rooms and hallways. The passage also allows private traffic to flow the other way and has become known as “the Marilyn door” since the administration of President Kennedy.

  Tourists are limited to the eastern corridor until they are directed up the stairway to the fourth level, where they pass through the east Ball Room, the Green Room, the Red Room, the Blue Room and the State Dining Room. After their requests to take pictures have been denied, they are shuffled out through the north portico, having seen only a small token of this seat of power and privilege.

  In essence, out of 132 rooms, the public sees only two corridors the entrance hall and five pristine showcase rooms. The rooms the public sees are beautiful and historic, but they fail to convey just how extensive and lavish the president’s palace is! Additionally, this miniscule part of the White House is only open for some 20 hours each week, and to only a small sampling of the public.

  For the remainder of the time, the whole estate is the first family’s to enjoy in total privacy. They are free to entertain their friends in any part of it. They enjoy the lavish decorations, priceless paintings and exquisite objects d’art; they can lounge on the hidden balconies and hallways or bask in the sunlight in the Solarium. They can even let their kids ride their bikes in its corridors, play “Chopsticks” on the Steinway grand piano in the east Ballroom, or curl up in a museum-quality lounge in the Red Room, if that is where they want to play their video games or use their laptop computers.

  But personal use isn’t the only way that the first family benefits from the mansion facilities at their disposal. Susan Ford invited her classmates to have their junior prom in the east Room. Chelsea Clinton had her friends join her for pizza in the West Dining Room.

  Of course, the first lady also can invite over anyone she would like to have for tea in her choice of any room. If the friend would like, he or she can sit under Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington, or an original Whistler or dine beside Hassan’s flag-bedecked masterpiece, Avenue in the Rain. Any arrangement the first lady wants can be accommodated; just as the Surveyor of the Royal Collections is at Queen Elizabeth’s beck and call, the National Portrait Gallery has never refused a first lady’s request to promptly provide any of its masterpieces “on loan.”

  But relaxing and entertaining are not the only concessions the White House makes to the personal needs of the first family. Off the massive corridor on the ground floor is the office of the presidential physician and his assistants (five military physicians, five nurses, five assistants, three medics and three administrators!). Along with a fully-stocked pharmacy, these medical professionals are available 24 hours a day, not just to the first family but to anyone staying in the White House or just visiting during the day. There is no waiting for appointments or dragging themselves to a doctor’s office or a drugstore, no need to present an insurance card or Medicare form.

  For anything from a Tylenol to open-heart surgery, taxpayers always foot the bill.

  However, first families do not get everything for free: they do pay the costs of their own groceries and toiletries. This lone remnant from days when presidents were required to pay their own way was instituted by Congress during George Washington’s administration. It has been maintained by Congress ever since—perhaps it makes members of Congress feel they have not surrendered every shred of control.

  There are also several belowground levels of the White House. Although comfortable, they are not luxurious, but they represent the extreme safeguards the president and first family enjoy every second that they are at home. For security reasons, little is written about these rooms and they are never shown to the public. Underneath a bombproof edifice, however, bunker conditions hardly prevail. Rather, even if nuclear attack were leveling the rest of the Capitol for miles around, the president and his family and cabinet would be protected—not just from the blast, but from having to do without the services and surroundings they’re so used to. Below ground at the White House are extensive living accommodations and work spaces, which may not compare with the mansion above but are nonetheless much nicer and far roomier than the homes of most Americans. Utilities that are independent of the main power grid, stocks of food and other necessities, and first-rate communications technology are all there for the first family’s protection and comfort— not just for the preservation of presidential authority during an emergency.

  One national treasure that will be preserved in such an emergency is the White House wine cellar, maintained under climate-controlled conditions. Since the Ford Administration, only domestic wine has been purchased for this cellar, although the collection predates this patriotic commitment to our country’s vintners. Perhaps most famously, and almost unbelievably, the White House cellars still include a surprising number of bottles purchased in France and put up in the White House by Thomas Jefferson when he was president. Thus Jefferson’s contribution to our national heritage was not limited to the bargain price at
which he sold his book collection to the Library of Congress; in all, Jefferson invested $10,000 of his own money in fine wines, considering it appropriate for even a president to entertain at his own expense. That’s about a quarter of a million in today’s dollars.

  A lot of wine also equates to a lot of wine bottles to be dusted. From tip to toe, the White House would always pass a white glove test. Whether it’s underground bunkers or sky parlors or private balconies, the Presidential Palace is kept spotless. Keeping all the personal and public spaces pristine—even while they are in constant use—is a big job. Not to worry: the taxpayers pay for servants to do all that work.

  But dusting, polishing and vacuuming aren’t the only tasks about which the first family never has to worry. Presidents over the years have accrued a berth of specialists that probably match, person for person, the appointed specialists in any of Europe’s royal households: gardeners, painters, curators, hairstylists, and butlers. Even florists are on retainer for the president (with the exception of the Polk Administration, when flowers were banned in the belief they gave off unhealthy vapors and robbed the air of valuable elements). Taxpayers foot the bill (usually about a quarter of a million dollars each year) for fresh flowers to be arranged daily in several dozen vases throughout the White House.

  There are servants assigned to personal tasks too. There are the president’s valets and the first lady’s maids, and backups of these servants who are fully trained and well rehearsed in the personal preferences of their master and mistress. It would not be right to say “their employers” for their employers are you and me—the taxpayers. Even the children’s nannies have backups in case the mainstays are sick or absent. (if you think that sort of luxury is downright regal for the people in a democracy’s White House, then you may bristle over Chapter 7, in which we describe the attentions lavished on the First Canine by a full-time dog handler.)

  The personal catering is nothing short of regal. Often, presidents find they have come to take it so completely for granted that once they exit office, they are startled by the way their citizens live their lives. They even wonder how the average person manages to function! The author met with former President Eisenhower on the first morning after he left the White House at the end of his two terms. “This morning,” Ike said proudly, flashing his famous grin, “I picked out my own tie!” or, as Nancy Reagan wrote honestly in her memoir My Turn, “every evening, while I took a bath, one of the maids would come by and remove my clothing for pressing or dry cleaning. The bed would always be turned down. Five minutes after Ronnie had come home and hung up his suit, it would disappear from the closet to be pressed or cleaned.” No wonder Reagan called the White House an eight-star hotel.

  While HRH Queen Elizabeth is never seen in public without her purse, it is said she never carries any cash or personal identification. Why should she? Similarly, our President is never asked to display a driver’s license, purchase his own newspaper, hail a cab, pick up dry cleaning, tip a waiter, pay a utility bill, choose his own necktie or turn down his own sheets. It is easy to imagine the extent to which the first family falls out of touch with the minor interactions and chores that even well-to-do Americans face on a daily basis—to say nothing of the monetary expenses they are spared by this treatment.

  Think of all your other nuisances and costs that we cover for our president and his family:

  Moving-in expenses: No charge to First Family

  Heat, light, air conditioning: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  High speed internet access: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Laundry services: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Cooks, waiters: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Cleaning services: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Local and international telephone: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Periodicals and newspapers: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  All TV channels and cable: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Total medical care: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Prescriptions: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Personalized stationery, pens: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Transportation: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Motion Pictures: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Baby-sitting services: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Pet caring services: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  WH athletic facilities: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Massage therapist: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Presidential Seal terry bathrobes: No charge to First Family or their guests.

  Real estate taxes: No charge to the First Family.

  Property insurance: No charge to the First Family. (In fact, there is no insurance policy on the White House. If it burns down, the taxpayers will rebuild it!)

  Moving out expenses: No charge to the First Family

  In sum, presidents live without having to pay for housing, transportation or even entertainment. They have full and exclusive use of the facilities of a fully-equipped “country club,” without any dues and assessments! They make no payment for full medical services for themselves and their families. They are never bothered with utility bills or the costs of petty subscriptions and contracts, such as for newspapers or television. The presidential lifestyle is wholly sheltered from the myriad disbursements that pile up for most of us along with business taxes, office rent, secretarial help, the costs of computers, telephones and fax machines, or even office supplies. In fact, unless a president wants to buy a gift for his wife or a trinket for himself, he never even needs to carry cash or a credit card.

  There have been a lot of changes and a lot of luxury added into the mix in the years since First Lady Abigail Adams did her own laundry and hung it in the east Room to dry—even while she closely advised and consulted with her husband in person and by correspondence throughout his time as president.

  Harry Truman ran the renovated White House with a total staff of 285, while going toe-to-toe with the entire Soviet empire. Even the Kennedy’s much vaunted style was managed with the assistance of a mere 375 persons. By George W. Bush’s time, the White House staff had escalated to over 1,100. But two years into the Obama Administration, the payroll had increased by another 10% to over 1,200!

  It is nearly impossible to track the full expenses of employees assigned to the White House mansion. Instead, some White House expenses are buried in departmental budgets and various appropriations bills, with classified portions of their own. Still, even a cursory look into some budget disclosures is revealing. For example, even without the cost of real estate taxes or insurance costs, the General Government Appropriations Act of 2008 puts the annual operating expense of the White House mansion at $12,814,000―which, divided by 365 days, gives us a White House mansion operating expense of $35,100 a day! While that amount supposedly covers the maintenance and services in the mansion and its grounds, another $1,600,000 was set aside in the 2008 budget for White House repair and restoration.

  According to Bradley H. Patterson’s excellently researched book, To Serve the President, the total cost to the taxpayers of all White House elements for fiscal year 2008―and this figure includes such items as security and White House professionals―was over one and a half billion dollars. That’s nearly four million dollars a day. In contrast, to keep Elizabeth II on the throne in royal style costs United Kingdom taxpayers a bit less than 60 million dollars annually, while revenues from the Crown’s estate return about 300 million dollars to the British Treasury.

  “Is there anyone in the White House with nerve enough to tell Barack Obama that Martha‘s Vineyard is the last place on earth that [he] should find himself...Camp David comes equipped with 24-hour guard service, including fighter jets...For presidential enjoyment,
Camp David‘s wooded mountain-top has a swimming pool, a sauna, tennis courts, a bowling alley, a trout stream and movie facilities...Plus there are guest cottages should the Obamas wish to have friends over. And, of course, highly trained chefs...Ah, but that seems to be not enough when stacked against Cape Cod.”

  —Colbert i. King in The Washington Post, August 12, 2011

  Chapter Five

  Camp David: A Vacation Retreat for Family, Friends and Political Contributors

  Camp David, the rustic 125-acre presidential retreat, is part of the Catoctin Mountain Park recreational area in Frederick County, Maryland, 60 miles north of Washington, D.C. It was founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as Shangri-La and later renamed Camp David after Dwight Eisenhower’s grandson.

  When President Roosevelt directed the purchase of hi-Catoctin for $25,000, it was a park set aside for the use of federal employees and their families. Today, the 130-acre mountain retreat, now called Camp David, is reserved for the exclusive use of one federal employee and one federal employee only, the President of the United States, and those relatives, foreign dignitaries, friends or political contributors he favors with an invitation.

  It took no Act of Congress to authorize conversion of the facility from a recreational retreat enjoyed by all federal employees into an encampment devoted solely to the exclusive use of the president and those with whom he offers to share it. It was not something championed by the public or by the press or by proclamation or referendum vote of the American taxpayers. As in all cases of presidential perks, it only took one vote to make it happen: that of the Chief Beneficiary himself.