Presidential libraries too costly

By Dan McGinn

Chicago Tribune

Recently it was revealed that President Barack Obama intends to raise $1 billion to build his library and fund the associated endowment. Let me say this again: The president intends to raise one billion dollars for his library.

The collective public response to this news was a big ho-hum. Everyone simply assumes former presidents will build monuments to themselves. But despite being a student of presidential history and a supporter of Obama, I think it’s time to put an end to this modern-day version of the Egyptian pyramids.

Two of my favorite presidents, Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, started the arms race of presidential libraries. Roosevelt personally sketched the plan for the modest library he proposed building on his property in Hyde Park, N.Y. The facility, which cost less than $400,000 to build, was dedicated on June 30, 1941.

Truman, the last president without a college degree, was a serious student of history and public affairs. After his presidency ended in January 1953, he was passionate about building a library that would allow scholars access to the important papers of his administration. His library, opened on July 6, 1957, cost $1.75 million.

In the last 60 years, the cost of building and maintaining presidential libraries has accelerated and expanded in ways that Roosevelt and Truman never imagined. Lyndon Johnson’s library cost 10 times as much as Truman’s. Ronald Reagan’s was triple the cost of Johnson’s. George H.W. Bush doubled the Reagan budget. Bill Clinton then doubled Bush.

George W. Bush raised $500 million to build and endow his shrine. And now Obama is set to double that mark. So, in a span of about 60 years, the price of a presidential library has gone from less than $2 million to $1 billion and counting.

Where does this end? Would a President Hillary Clinton seek to top both her predecessor and her husband with a $2 billion extravaganza in New York? Or would a President Donald Trump. OK, we know the kind of facility he would build.

The only answer is to put an end to this nonsense. The thoughtful, scholarly study of the presidency is important. So, too, is the celebration of a president by the community or state that launched his or her career. But $1 billion edifices are not just too expensive, they also stand in conflict with the very idea of citizen leaders.

The next president should pledge that he or she will not build a bricks-and-mortar library. Instead, he or she should create the first totally virtual library. The critical objectives of scholarship and transparency, as promoted by Roosevelt and Truman, would still be honored. But the unseemly and irresponsible shilling by former presidents would come to an end.

Dan McGinn, founder and CEO of the Arlington, Va.-based McGinn and Co., is a reputation- management adviser. He wrote this for the Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.