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"Spending on these temples to executive egotism-much of which taxpayers are stuck with-is totally out of control. Construction costs alone for the George H.W. Bush library came to $43 million when it opened its doors to a mob of screaming fans in 1997, some of whom had camped out in the parking lot for days. The cost of Bill Clinton's came to $165 million."

"In all fairness, a lot of private money goes to fund presidential libraries. This is especially encouraging considering the fact that the Obama Foundation is trying to raise $1.6 billion for their project. Biden's team says the costs of theirs will "end up somewhere in the middle" of what the Bush I and Obama libraries will require. Once presidential libraries are up and running, they are managed by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), which of course gets its budget from the taxpayers."

Biden's presidential library is encountering fundraising difficulty amid a fragmented donor base and fewer large Democratic donations. Presidential library construction and operating costs have risen markedly, with George H.W. Bush's library costing $43 million and Bill Clinton's $165 million. The Obama Foundation is pursuing $1.6 billion for its project, and Biden's team expects costs somewhere between those figures. Many presidential libraries receive private construction funding but are transferred to the National Archives and Records Administration for operation, whose budget is taxpayer-funded. Taxpayers now underwrite the operation of 14 presidential libraries, with additional projects anticipated.

Read at The American Conservative