President Barack Obama not only feels your pain — he just might cut you a check if you write him and tell him about it.
On some occasions, the President writes a personal check — actual money from his own pocket — to Americans who write him about personal hardships, according to a a report by Eli Saslow in the Washington Post last week that probably received far less attention than it deserved.
A few times during his presidency, Saslow reports, Obama admitted to writing a personal check on the writer’s behalf, believing that it was his only way to ensure a fast result.
“It’s not something I should advertise, but it has happened,” he told Saslow, who interviewed the President for a new book.
The White House is not denying it — although they aren’t elaborating on the admission in any way, shape or form.
The Huffington Post wrote about the staggering check-writing admission and asked all the right questions:
“How many times has President Obama intervened on someone’s behalf, and with what kind of problems does he help? Mortgage payments? Medical bills? And when he wants to help someone out with a personal check, how does it work? Does he send a check signed ‘Barack Obama’ directly to the individual in need, or does he send the money to a bank or company on the person’s behalf? Do people even know when Obama has helped them out, or does the help arrive anonymously through a lawyer?”
TPM has a few more: Does he deduct the gifts on his taxes? Exactly how many times has Obama opened up his checkbook — are we talking a few times, a few dozen, more? Is he not commenting at the risk of alienating the 99.9% of people he didn’t cut checks to? How does he ensure the money is well spent?
Others have written about Obama’s habit of responding to folks who write him about their problems, but this money-where-your-mouth-is business is definitely new. After reading some letters, Saslow reports that Obama also has made phone calls, or forwarded the letters to government agencies or Cabinet secretaries on behalf of letter writers to ensure a quicker turn-around time.
“Some of these letters you read and you say, ‘Gosh, I really want to help this person, and I may not have the tools to help them right now,’â” the President told Saslow. “And then you start thinking about the fact that for every one person that wrote describing their story, there might be another hundred thousand going through the same thing. So there are times when I’m reading the letters and I feel pained that I can’t do more, faster, to make a difference in their lives.”
While an indisputable act of generosity, the practice is not unprecedented. Ronald Reagan loved to respond to requests from ordinary citizens, sometimes even writing them personal checks if they were under financial duress, according to a James B. Sutherland’s book “Ronald Reagan.”
“His advisors found this both extraordinary and frightening,” Sutherland wrote. “They didn’t want people taking advantage of Reagan’s kindness, but they quickly learned not to try and stop him.”
In one instance, Reagan found out that a woman he had sent one hundred dollars to hadn’t cashed the check because she wanted to save it as a memento, Sutherland writes. Reagan instructed her to deposit it and made sure his accountant sent the cancelled check back to her.
