Gingrich's Secret Service Protection To Officially End Tonight

buzzfeed.com ^ | Apr 26, 2012 | Rosie Gray

[bibo_ergo_sum]

The Secret Service protection was costing the government around $40,000 a day, a fact that became controversial as Gingrich's campaign wore on and faded increasingly into irrelevance.

The decision came down from the administration, according to Gingrich press secretary R.C. Hammond.

[narses]

Your point?

[wideminded]

Your point?

My initial reaction was that perhaps the figure of $40000/day for the Secret Service to protect one person has been reported incorrectly. But apparently that is the figure which has been given to congress on multiple occasions for protecting presidential candidates.

The figure of $40000/day did not seem believable to me because this would seem to be enough to pay for a small army. Even with three shifts of agents with high salary and benefits, it would be enough for dozens of agents at one time. And maybe not quite as many agents are needed when Gingrich is asleep. Of course I don't know the breakdown of how much of this goes for travel, hotel charges, etc. and probably the Secret Service has to either rent vehicles or have them moved to each location where the candidate will appear. But certainly one could hire a very large number of private bodyguards for $40000/day.

Of course this may be partially an artifact of government accounting. When one part of the government charges another part, who knows if every dollar of the charge goes directly for the intended purpose or whether there is some "overhead".