My guesstimate is that at least $500K a year was spent on secret service protection (figure 7 or so agents, costing at least $70K a year each in salary and support). How much does that come down to per person? Probably 100 million of our 270 million citizens pay taxes; so on average those of us gainfully employed were paying about a penny a year for Reagan’s protection; higher-income types were paying, say, five to ten cents a year.

The Best of Stephan Kinsella