The notion isn’t as far off as you may think. On more than one occasion, President Obama has grabbed his personal checkbook to help alleviate the financial woes faced by struggling Americans, according to a new book, “Ten Letters: The Stories Americans Tell Their President.”
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“It’s not something I should advertise, but it has happened,” President Obama told the book’s author, Eli Saslow. In his book, Saslow tells the story of how every day President Obama selects ten letters from citizens to read.
While it’s unclear how many personal checks he has written, it’s common knowledge that President Obama personally reads and responds to the people who write him. With so many people writing in about being hit hard by the recession, perhaps President Obama feels that cutting an occasional check is a way for him to directly make an impact.
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“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,'” 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.”
Would you be surprised to find a check from President Obama in your mailbox?
