VP Biden charging SS agents rent...

[LSN80]

$2,200 a month, in fact for staying in the cottage next to his own home, giving them close proximity to the man they're sworn to protect.


http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jul/31/biden-charging-secret-service-cottage-rental/

In documents made public this past weekend, Vice President Joe Biden has collected $13,000 since April after contracting with the Secret Service to stay in his private cottage. He stands to make up to $66,000 in all by the end of the arrangement in 2013, off of the agency that is sworn to protect the wellbeing of that and his family.

Spokeswoman for the Citizen's Against Government Waste, Leslie Page called the arrangement "odd", and noted further:

"The arrangement seems bizarre to me. You’d think the vice president, who shepherded the deficit committee, would think twice about charging the Secret Service rent. Why would he need the money? I don’t get it."

A spokesman for the Secret Service noted that Biden had approached them in 2010 about renting the cottage after the previous occupant, Biden's mother, had passed away. Biden then rented it to another tenant, at the same rate he's now charging the Secret Service. After the occupants moved out in early 2011, the Secret Service contacted the VP this time to inquire about renting out the cabin. When asked if the Secret Service typically pays rent to people it protects, Sercret Service Director of Government and Public Affairs Edwin Donovan simply stated:

“It’s a rental property so we pay rent there. It allows us accessability that we wouldn't otherwise have”.

Biden is listed as a "vendor" in federal purchasing documents, not as the Vice President. The purchase order for the cottage describes the Vice President the cottage's sole proprietor, with no other annual revenue. Worth noting is that Biden and President Obama have been outspoken on the need for eliminating waste in federal contracts, and as a vendor on a fixed-price contract, Mr. Biden technically now is a federal contractor himself. Biden recently said:

“The President and I are committed to changing the way government works and we are stepping up the hunt for misspent dollars. We need to step up the hunt for misspent dollars”.

There's alot more talk of this odd case revolving arround Biden charging rent to the same men who protect him, and his right as a private vendor to "make a living" as he sees fit. It's assuredly a complicated, bizzarre case, and the arguments both for and against Biden's use of the cottage are compelling.

Is Biden's charging rent to the very Secret Service that protects him part of the "misspent dollars" he was referring to? Or being that the Secret Service routinely rents out establishments near people they're charged to protect, is this just a convenient arrangement?

Any other thoughts on this?

 

[#hamler]

So what, if they refuse to pay the rent will they be kicked out? This is hilariously stupid. What's the point? Does Biden get this rent money? Its hilarious because they have to pay don't they? If they don't they'll be jailed for betraying our country or some bullshit like that because they swore to protect the VP. I don't think Biden needs the money. Although I do understand that a private tenant lived there before and Biden collected $11,000 from this tenant in 2010. That $11,000 would probably be hard to do without although Biden doesn't need it. I believe the secet service do enough for the Vice President not to have to pay the rent. They don't have to live in the cottage do they? If they HAVE to love there it's pretty fucked up.

 

[Gelgarin]

The secret service presumably pays rent in order to make use of property local to a great many other people they protect... why should this case be any different?

If the property did not belong to Joe Biden and was being let by somebody else then the secret service would still have made use of it, would still have paid for it, would probably have paid the same amount, and nobody would have given a shit.
If Joe Biden let his property to somebody else then the secret service would make other arrangements and would probably still end up paying. Joe Biden would be making the same amount of money, and once again nobody would give a shit.
The secret service letting this property doesn't make America any poorer; nor does it make Joe Biden any richer. Some faceless person who might be renting the cottage were the secret service not in it is perhaps mildly inconvenienced, but beyond that this arrangement has no downside.

It's completely fine for politicians to earn money from property they happen to own.
It's completely fine for the secret service spend money doing their job.

What people complaining about this are essentially saying is that, in the name of national thrift, Joe Biden should gift the secret service $11,000 every year whilst he is in office. That's ludicrous logic and leads to all kinds of backwards ideas. Should politicians be banned from charging rent on properties altogether? After all, if the people who pay the rent didn't have to it would help stimulate the economy.

Joe Biden owns property. Joe Biden rents property. Joe Biden now rents property to the secret service. I am honestly agog at how anybody could have an issue with this.

 

[Dagger Dias]

This is a very strange case. It's not like he needs the money. I think there is something they are not telling us. That is a LOT of money to charge the guys who are supposed to be protecting him in the first place to stay nearby. It was also not very smart of them to let this become public. Now people know that they are there rather than at his house. This has nothing to do with misspent dollars because they are trying to cover up what's really going on, and that would be something they obviously do not want people knowing about. Perhaps we are further in debt than we think and Biden legitimately needs the money?

 

[Serious Mozzarella]

I was basically going to say what Hamler said. What happens if they just don't pay? I don't understand, it's not like they choose to be there. They're doing it for HIS protection. It should be payment enough.

 

[lindiA]

The United States Secret Service guarantees to protect national leaders' lives no matter what. This means that they'll take a bullet in the chest if it means a politician's life is spared. Now accounts show that for agents at Vice President Joe Biden's cottage near Wilmington, Del., they also pay rent. I found this here: Joe Biden charges Secret Service rent at his Delaware home
He's a government official that's why he thinks that he can do almost anything he pleases. I say he's corrupt.