Secret Service: Gingrich refuses to give up $40,000-per-day security detail

He hasn’t been Speaker of the House in 13 years and has no chance of becoming the 45th President of the United States.

So shouldn’t the self-proclaimed champion of fiscal responsibility also give up his tax-payer funded Secret Service detail which costs upwards of $40,000 a day?

The Taxpayer Protection Alliance, a civic group, are telling CNN they think he should.

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"Newt Gingrich just needs to really do the right thing and do the particularly responsible thing and say, 'Okay, I don't need Secret Service protection anymore,'" David Williams, the group’s president, was quoted as saying.

Gingrich spokesman RC Hammond said the campaign would give up the protection when its security advisers deemed the time was right.

“When it comes to security, we’re going to stick with the security experts,” he was quoted as telling CNN.

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ABC News reported yesterday that Gingrich had only had secret service protection for about one month. But he has vowed to stay in the race until the Republican National Committee convention in Tampa, Florida on Aug 27.

That is 130 days away, or more than $5 million in tax payer money, at this rate.

Citing an unnamed source, ABC said Gingrich’s security detail was known as the “Camp David” package and included, but was not necessarily limited to, six cars, six federal agents, and, at a campaign stop, four state troopers as well as four local agents on arrivals and a press agent if there is a bus for reporters.