Former U.S. presidents cost taxpayers more than $879,000 per year in pensions, personnel, benefits, travel and office expenses, and Bill Clinton's cumulative near-$16 million total is bringing him new scrutiny as his wife makes the case for a White House run of her own. Daily Mail Online reported Clinton's take in 2014, amounting to slightly less than $1.14 million per year, based on a paper from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service (CRS). That amount is still less than George W. Bush's $1.18 million annual haul. But since Clinton has had an eight-year head start, his overall benefits are the highest by far, totalling $15,938,000 since he left the White House in January 2001. His disbursement each year from the General Services Administration includes $96,000 for salaries; insiders told Politico that some of that money has been passed through to staffers at the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO AND THE CRS REPORT . KA-CHING: Bill Clinton costs taxpayers more than $1 million every year even though he and Hillary are worth more than $100 million . ART SUBSIDY: George W. Bush has taken up painting in his post-presidency, and taxpayers are buying the brushes and canvases . 'GSA does not dictate the number of staff for whom the allocation is used,' a foundation spokesperson told the inside-the-beltway newspaper. The foundation also insisted the Bill Clinton's personal funds, not taxpayer dollars, paid for the now-infamous private email server that his wife Hillary used exclusively while secretary of state. Mrs. Clinton said Tuesday during a contentious press conference in New York City that the former president set up the server for his own staff's use, and she began using it later. As she ramps up for a presidential campaign, critics have piled on with accusations that she intentionally avoided using a government-issued email address while she was the nation's top diplomat in order to hide electronic communications from State Department archivists. But she insisted on Tuesday that decision was made purely for 'convenience.' The larger question raised by Politico is whether it's appropriate for tax dollars to subsidize the salaries of nonprofit employees while their work is leveraged to support a potential presidential candidate. While Bill Clinton has received more post-White House cash overall than any other living former president, George W. Bush’s annual numbers are the highest . The Clinton Foundation is now Hillary's principal political messenger in the public sphere. Although its work doesn't include overt politicking or political campaigning, there's no mistaking that the public sees what Washington wags call 'Clinton, Inc.' – the amalgamation of the family's political, commercial and philanthropic arms – as a single entity. Sources also told Politico that staffers whose compensation straddles Bill Clinton's foundation purse and his government benefits include former White House aide Doug Band and senior Clinton Foundation staffer Laura Graham. The paper also speculated that Tina Flournoy, a former union official who is now Bill Clinton's chief of staff and advised Hillary Clinton's 2008 campaign, has followed suit. New York Magazine observed Flournoy's arrival at the foundation in 2012 'as Hillary's planting a sentinel' there. Annual payments to former U.S. chief executives are guaranteed by the Former Presdients Act of 1958, a law passed in response to the predicament of former president Harry S. Truman, who fell on hard times after he moved from Washington back to Missouri. At the time, Truman had to take out a personal loan from a Missouri bank to pay his bills. Today the law provides payments to Clinton, Bush, his father George W. Bush, and Jimmy Carter. WHICH WAY TO THE GRAVY TRAIN? Barack Obama is set to reap an annual windfall beginning in 2017 that will dwarf his current $400,000 salary . Former US presidents receive millions of dollars over the course of their post-office years, including living examples Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush and his father George  H.W. Bush . The Clintons' burgeoning personal wealth, including a mammoth $15 million advance for Hillary's memoir 'Hard Choices' and a string of six-figure speaking fees for her and Bill, have raised questions about whether 21st-century former presidents still need to be on the government dole. Utah Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz, now chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, introduced a bill in 2012 called the Presidential Allowance Modernization Act to reform the practice. The legislation, which never received a positive committee vote, would have capped the government's total annual spending on former presidents to $400,000 each. And that amount would have been reduced dollar-for-dollar by any money they earned. Under those guidelines, Clinton would have received nothing during most of his post-presidency. His earnings for individual speeches have reportedly topped $500,000. Tax returns the Clintons released in 2010 showed a total of $111 million in earnings from 2000 through 2007. 'Nobody wants our former presidents living the remainder of their lives destitute," Chaffetz said when he floated his bill three years ago, 'but the fact is none of our former presidents are poor.' 'Reports actually indicate that between book tours and speaking fees, these men are making millions of dollars a year. There's little reason why American taxpayers should be subsidizing these former presidents when they're doing fine on their own.' His spokespersons did not respond to a request for comment about whether he has plans to use his influential platform to reintroduce the bill in the current Congress. Jimmy Carter, who left office in 1981, spends the least among the four living former presidents. The GSA budgeted $466,000 for his total upkeep in 2014. Former Presidents' Pensions, Office Allowances, And Other Federal Benefits uploaded by DailyMail.com .
The Former Presdients Act provides pensions and office expenses for Clinton, both Bushes and Jimmy Carter . A 2014 Congressional Research Service report described the payments, pegging Clinton's total at $15.9 million, an average of $1.14 million per year . He has an 8-year head start on George W. Bush, who nevertheless collects the most each year – an average of $1.18 million . Some of the Clinton payouts are subsidizing staff who work at his family foundation, now closely tied to his wife Hillary . Clinton spokesman insists the infamous private email server in the power-couple's home was paid for out of Bill Clinton's pocket .