Obama Has Written Personal Checks To Struggling Americans

WASHINGTON -- Got problems? Tell Barack Obama. He can help. He might even give you money.

On more than one occasion, the president has cut personal checks to struggling Americans who've written to the White House, according to an excerpt from a new book by Washington Post reporter Eli Saslow about the ten letters the president reads every day.

"It's not something I should advertise, but it has happened," the president told Saslow.

How many times has President Obama intervened on someone's behalf, and with what kind of problems does he help? Mortgage payments? Medical bills? And when he wants to help someone out with a personal check, how does it work? Does he send a check signed "Barack Obama" directly to the individual in need, or does he send the money to a bank or company on the person's behalf? Do people even know when Obama has helped them out, or does the help arrive anonymously through a lawyer?

The White House declined to answer any questions about the practice.

HuffPost readers: Received help from the president after sending him a letter? Tell us about it -- email [e-mail]. Please include your phone number if you're willing to do an interview.

It's long been known that the president occasionally responds to the people who write him. Several folks who've heard back from Obama have even put the correspondence up for sale. NBC reported in June, for instance, that a single mom from Hobart, Ind. hoped to stave off eviction by selling an Obama letter for thousands of dollars. And a man who'd received a note from the president in response to an angry letter about bank bonuses put the letter up for auction in March.

It seems like Obama views writing a check or making a phone call on a correspondent's behalf as a way for him to alleviate the powerlessness he sometimes feels when reading his mail from regular people.

"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."

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Comments

[Lola Harrison]

03:40 PM on 10/28/2011

It was meant for all of this to happen during President Obama tenure. However, the disrespect shown to our President is awful.

[David Wyant]

10:32 AM on 10/28/2011

I am struggling to make ends meet. I did not recieve my check from Mr. Obama. I have been on disability going on almost 2 years now. I am getting barely enough to pay my bills and buy a few grocery's every month. Every time the folks in Washington have problems they want to scare people like me to death by saying they will not give us the little bit we have worked for all of our lives. I don;t get anything else besides my disability check once a month. I only get 16,000 a year, this winter coming scares the heck out me. I will not be able to pay my heat and electric bills.
I someone out there will tell me I am getting way too much and need to get a job. You have no idea what you are talking about. There are many things I could be getting but I don't.

[Benco76]

05:04 PM on 10/26/2011

I'm not American, neither am I keenly interested in politics and politicians. Also, for me, it doesn't matter who's America's president - black, white or hispanic. But when I read comments made by some Americans against President Obama, it make me think whether these are 21st century Americans or some people who are yet living in the stone ages. I admired Reagan, as well as Clinton. Hearing pedestrain talks from some unscrupulous voices alleging Obama is the cause of the America's economic crisis, one wonders from where these people are returning, or rather, where had they been between 1991 through 2008. Now, almost every efforts put forward by Obama to fix what Bush and his Republican war mongers and cronies made bad, had always met with Republican/Racists barriers. You blame a president he's not leading, yet you block his bills not to pass. This is the greatest hypocrisy and irony coming from the world's greatest democracy! To you 'foul' criers Republicans and supporters, better search for your rag towels where you last bathed. Leave the man alone to perform, and effect people's lives for some better.

[Austin Ray Walter]

07:00 PM on 10/26/2011

The ironic part is...Obama is the biggest war monger of them all. He's also racist, which he admits in his book. He also ignores Congress, and abuses his powers, which is against the law.

You complain about us not passing his bills. Have you ever considered there's possibly a good reason that they don't?

[joneseileen28]

08:38 PM on 10/27/2011

To Benco 76, you obviously have gotten into the Obama kool-aid....I was a Dem for 47 years, and have watched the slow decline of the party that used to be for the people, become a party of special interests and also evolving into a socialist party...I guess you are not interested in politics, because if you were, you'd have checked out your facts a little better.

[djjimb]

05:14 AM on 10/27/2011

You say all this in support of a president who says thru his speaker of the house, in regards to a bill that would have monumental impact on every American and every state, "...you have to approve this (health mandate bill) bill TO FIND OUT WHAT'S IN IT..." A president who's party had control of both houses of congress and had to ramrod bills thru. A president who included no republicans in any discussion and has only come around to "negotiate" and speak of cooperation AFTER losing the house of Representative majority. A president who allowd Mexico's head of state to come here and berate us in our own hall of congress. A president who did not take to task Eric Holder for criticising as unconstitutional Arizona's bill WHICH HE ADMITS HE NEVER READ..as Pres. O....had not read it himself. This guy has not been a United States president he has been a Divide States President, perrenially campaigning of the Democrat party. A president's job is to rise above party bickering and not spew words of divisvness himself. I agree with Obamatron69 below "worst president ever"

[Lorinc Del Motte]

03:52 PM on 10/26/2011

Why bother? During the depression here in Canada, our Prime Minister R. B. Benett tried to do the same thing, but it did not help him one iota.

[Obamatron69]

10:36 PM on 10/25/2011

Doesn't matter how many personal checks the man has written. The checks he's bouncing off the backs of our children are bringing this country down. Worst. President. Ever.

[stixnstones757]

11:23 PM on 10/25/2011

You sound very uneducated and ignorant. this country was in trillions of dollars of debt way before obama stepped into the oval office. i wish people would stop using obama as an excuse for there own problems. so pathetic

[Austin Ray Walter]

07:01 PM on 10/26/2011

Actually, you sound ignorant. Obama holds a majority of the Total US Debt, from his presidency alone.

[joneseileen28]

09:48 PM on 10/27/2011

No, you are pathetic, you obviously don't read and your still drinking the kool-aid, if you can't see the way this man and his party are steering America .Our problems are caused by this adm. and their hurry-up and pass the bill, so you can see whats in it.

[djjimb]

05:32 AM on 10/27/2011

I'm in agreement with you...worst president I can recall. He would do best, we all would do best to internalize John F Kennedy's words...seems like all forgot...."...ask NOT what your country can do FOR YOU...as what YOU can do for your country..." This country seems to no longer believe in open debate and disagreement. It lowers itself to demonizing and shouting down and findind something sloppy on anyone who disagrees. Be very wary of those who want to shout others down, call others names (a no argument, words of defeat), and silence any words of disagreement. Truly, they want dominance and are afraid others might hear the disagreeing side. They are afraid the truth will not stand on its own, because they are the only wise ones and must dictate the truth and assume the rest of the nation's people are ignorant and cannot decide after hearing the various sides.

[joneseileen28]

09:50 PM on 10/27/2011

djjimb, you forgot...AND THY NAME IS LIBERAL.......

[stuntdigital]

08:22 PM on 10/25/2011

I am proud to pay taxes, be an American, and most importantly be a part of the struggle to improve the quality of life in this country, and on this president's watch!

[Austin Ray Walter]

06:56 PM on 10/26/2011

This President is in Violation of the US Constitution.

[joneseileen28]

09:55 PM on 10/27/2011

Then, stuntdigital, you will go down with his ship because......2010 -The restoration commences, 2012 - The salvation for America comes, 2013 - The Liberation of Freedom from Socialist progressives is carried out !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Borrowed from a Friend.......

[King Jess]

05:58 PM on 10/25/2011

smh poor obama he not take it right he not dealing with the devils right he gotta stay strong

[jettNY]

04:00 PM on 10/25/2011

nice reporting work. now 1000s of people will write to him with sad stories, regardless of genuine need, and he'll stop out of necessity.

just brilliant

[Ibrahim Sebo]

02:38 PM on 10/25/2011

why this article..http://eastafricanmoviedatabase.com/

[Ibrahim Sebo]

02:37 PM on 10/25/2011

http://eastafricanmoviedatabase.com/

[Peter Engels]

12:55 PM on 10/25/2011

Even if he is powerless to enact much change, thanks to a polarized Congress, he at least has a genuine personal concern for what is happening in the country.

I think it was poor journalistic integrity by the author, though, reporting this when the President said "this is not something I should advertise." Greedy Americans will not pour letters into the White House by the truck load hoping for a handout, and the GOP, I'm sure, will latch onto this and spin it as negatively as possible.

[joneseileen28]

09:59 PM on 10/27/2011

Mr. Engels , the congress is not polarized..... HIS OWN party is voting against hisbills. Wake -up!

[Peter Engels]

10:36 PM on 10/27/2011

Wake up? The Republicans have stated very bluntly that they will vote down any Democratically-presented bill. The Democrats will not pass any Republican-backed bill. And neither of them will support the President's bills. All for party affiliation reasons (which has also been stated pretty clearly as the reasons). That is what "polarized" generally tends to mean. Congress is polarized and broken. If you can't see that you've been oblivious to anything going on in the Washington for quite a long time.

[Jeremy Pike]

10:20 AM on 10/25/2011

He is a great personal philanthropist, a good man, but not a great president. We needed someone exceptional in the post-Bush era and we failed to find someone. The Democrats couldn't produce someone and from the looks of it the Republicans can't either. I guess exceptional people don't conform to their political platform quite enough.

[Justin Rodriguez]

12:36 PM on 10/25/2011

One get some things right its people like you that don't see whats going on behind the scenes. No president in history had to fight so hard to get anything passed. If the republicans wouldn't try so hard to stop him from doing anything he may have been an exceptional president.

[Sherry Hatcher]

09:41 PM on 10/25/2011

TRU DAT

[Austin Ray Walter]

10:43 AM on 10/27/2011

You're so clueless. It doesn't matter if he has to fight hard to get something passed. That doesn't mean what he's trying to pass is a GOOD BILL, LEGISLATION, or POLICY!

IS THAT HARD TO FIGURE OUT!?

[dondon7777]

12:50 PM on 10/25/2011

The man is every inch exceptional, but the frenzied hatred of him and relentless obstructionism he faced has in effect diminished the exception that he could have become. Ponder this for just a moment: What if the change he campaigned on, what if the faith in the American people, what if the policies he tried to enact had been allowed to go forth? The entire mood of this nation (and truth be told, of the world), the economy, everything about us would be different. My disclaimer: IF IT WERE NOT FOR THE REPUBLICANS, BIRTHERS, TEA-PARTY, NAYSAYERS, DOUBTERS, THE FEARFUL, THE TAKE_OUR_COUNTRY_BACK_TO_THE STONE_AGES crowds, we would be on our way back to prosperity, hope, recovery and restoration.

[Kitt Lenington]

03:14 PM on 10/25/2011

Right here - says it all: "but the frenzied hatred of him and relentless obstructio­nism he faced has in effect diminished the exception that he could have become."

Your entire response; however, "frenzied hatred of him and relentless obstructionism" - awesome wording.

[Obamatron69]

10:38 PM on 10/25/2011

"what if the policies he tried to enact had been allowed to go forth?"

We'd probably be in a depression.

[LoudAmerican]

07:49 AM on 10/25/2011

It stead of acting nice and trying to look good what if he did different?

Here's a thought:
IMAGINE IF THE 535,000,000 that was spent on that GREEN COMPANY that filed for bankruptcy - it was instead just divided between every legal American (in U.S. there are about 312,490,663 citizen's)

You think if EVERY citizen got over a million bucks - our economy would be turned around quick, fast, and in a hurry?

[Cualquier]

09:37 AM on 10/25/2011

Double fail. LoudAmerican: an obnoxious stereotype who can't perform basic math.

[EvolutionWillWin]

09:49 AM on 10/25/2011

If I were you, I would check my math. $535,000,000/312,490,663=$1.71 for each citizen. Oh, and I'd also check my grammar. The plural of citizen is citizens, not citizen's.

[joneseileen28]

09:26 PM on 10/27/2011

EvolutionWILLWIN, better go back to school for math, because he's right.... $535 mill. and over 312 mill people does equal over a million per citizen...........YOU MUST BE A LEFT WING LIBERAL DEMOCRAT. Stuuuuupid!

[fourthstreet]

05:54 AM on 10/25/2011

R

[Richard Frank]

05:36 AM on 10/25/2011

I think that Pres. Obama demonstrates a genuine compassion when writing a personal check to someone in need. He is 'walking the walk' of helping out less fortunate ones; he has the means to do so. I believe others in the Washington, D.C. political elected community should emulate him. I have done this myself, and I'm not some millionaire with money to burn. I'm an Assistant Prof. of Nursing at a community college who makes $55,000 a year. Yesterday I gave $398 to a group of vets who want to get shower shoes for their mates in a VA hospital where they have no footwear to give to indigent patients.

[joneseileen28]

09:34 PM on 10/27/2011

Mr. Frank, I'm sorry but he's walking the walk of a publicity seeker who only cares to keep his job....will do anything , and say anything to keep THAT job !