"The Buck Stops Here."
"It doesn't matter how big a ranch ya' own, or how many cows ya' brand, the size of your funeral is still gonna depend on the weather."
-Harry Truman.
After President Truman retired from office in 1952, he was left with an income consisting of basically a U.S.Army pension, reported to have been only $13,507.72 a year. Congress, noting that he was paying for his stamps and personally licking them, granted him an "allowance" and, later, a retroactive pension of $25,000 per year.
When offered corporate positions at large salaries, he declined, stating, "You don't want me.
You want the office of the president, and that doesn't belong to me.
It belongs to the American people and it's not for sale."
Even later, on May 6, 1971, when Congress was preparing to award him the Medal of Honor on his 87th birthday, he refused to accept it, writing,
"I don't consider that I have done anything which should be the reason for any award, Congressional or otherwise."
We now see that other past presidents, have found a new level of success in cashing in on the presidency, resulting in untold wealth.
Today, many in Congress also have found a way to become quite wealthy while enjoying the fruits of their offices.
Obviously, political offices are now for sale.
Good old Harry Truman could have been correct when he observed, "My choice early in life was either to be a piano player in a whorehouse or a politician.
And to tell the truth, there's hardly any difference.
I, for one, believe the piano player job to be much more honorable than current politicians."
These bring to mind another little known quote from Giv'em Hell Harry.
Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld was backed to the hilt by President Bush, but his father David Rumsfeld didn't enjoy such support when he held the same job for President Truman who once said, "Hiring David Rumsfeld is the worst mistake I ever made. It's not that he's a bad man, it's just that he's such a dumb son-of-a-bitch."