$52.3 million Total amount spent on all former presidents and their spouses from 1998 through 2012 [View all]

[midnight]

Being the leader of the free world is an expensive proposition," says The Associated Press' Josh Lederman. And according to a new analysis by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), "the costs don't stop once you leave the White House." Between pensions, office space and staff, postage, travel, and other benefits, the U.S. spent nearly $3.7 million in 2012 on our four living former presidents and Ronald Reagan's widow, Nancy Reagan.
That's "a drop in the bucket compared with the trillions the federal government spends each year," says Lederman, but it's quite a hefty sum to pony up for ex-presidents "able to command eye-popping sums for books, speaking engagements, and the like in their post-White House years." That amount doesn't even include the secret cost of Secret Service protection for former presidents and their families.
But life wasn't always so easy for former presidents, says the CRS. Some, like Harry S Truman and Ulysses S. Grant, struggled financially in their post-White House years. So, "in 1958, prompted largely by former President Truman's financial difficulties, Congress enacted the Former Presidents Act," says the CRS's Wendy Ginsberg. "The FPA was designed to 'maintain the dignity' of the office of the president" so that no future president would have to struggle like Truman. How much does that work out to today for taxpayers? Here's a look, by the numbers:

Read more at http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/03/26/Which-Former-President-Costs-US-the-Most.aspx#alV9we78qla3Ezxo.99