Do The Math. This is not the only reason to vote against John Forbes Kerry, but it is another good reason to ponder as you make your decision.

What is wrong with this picture?

It is good to be John F. Kerry……. He is the richest Senator in Government. The Kerry’s have five homes in the US, not counting their foreign ones. The cost of the utilities (water, gas & electricity) to run these homes is more than the average American could afford, even if the homes otherwise were free.

•Boston: A five-story, 12-room Beacon Hill town house that serves as Mr. Kerry’s main residence. Assessed value: $6.9 million.

•Nantucket, Mass.: A three-story, five-bedroom waterfront retreat on Brant Point. Assessed value: $9.18 million.

•Washington, D.C.: A 23-room town house in Georgetown. Proposed 2005 assessment: $4.7 million.

•Ketchum, Idaho: A ski getaway converted from a reassembled barn near Sun Valley. Assessed value: $4.9 million. Mrs. Kerry also owns two adjoining lots valued at $1.5 million and $1.8 million.

•Fox Chapel, Pa.: A nine-room colonial on nearly 90 acres in suburban Pittsburgh. The property also includes a nine-room carriage house. Assessed value: $3.7 million.

Consider what the Kerrys invested in those multi-million dollar estates, the maintenance, real estate taxes, insurance, and the staffs, including groundskeepers, building maintenance, and housekeepers. None of these is like the bungalow down the street.

If Kerry is elected President the taxpayers to pay for all that, while he is in office. In addition, we would pay for security improvements for each home, even if they never go to there, just in case. When someone is elected president, the Secret Service has to protect the President, his family and his property. If Kerry is President, we would pay for a Secret Service detail at each home 24 hours per day.

Those details guarding the Presidential home(s) involve - at a minimum, when you consider the Kerrys’ properties - five agents on duty at all times, at each property. They work six-hour shifts, four shifts per day. Some of the Kerry properties may require more guards than that, because they are fairly extensive. After a President leaves office, the taxpayers still have to provide that Secret Security protection, although the former President resumes paying the taxes, maintenance, insurance and all the rest.

If the agents are each paid $60,000 per year, plus another $40,000 per year per agent in benefits, equipment, vehicles, administration, meals, vacations, etc., $100,000 per year per agent could be a low figure. For five homes, that comes to 100 agents, or $10 million per year, for the rest of his life.

The reason the taxpayers provide all this protection is that the President’s salary wouldn’t cover it, even for one home, which is what George and Laura Bush have. Why would anyone with his wealth, want to take the salary of a U.S. Senator, or even the salary of the President? Do you believe him about why he wants to be the President? Do you think he really wants to serve the people? Or for the people serve Him and his wife?

Want more? Come see my followup to this article: “The Flying Squirrel”

http://caoilfhionn.blogspot.com/2004/08/flying-squirrel.html

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