(2004-07-01) -- In the same week that Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, told a San Francisco audience that future President John Forbes Kerry will take money away from wealthy Americans "on behalf of the common good", the former First Lady’s publisher announced it would not pay the $5.3 million deferred advance it owes for her book Living History.

"To get the publishing industry, and our company in particular, back on track, we’re going to cut that short and not give it to you," a spokesman for Simon and Shuster reportedly told Mrs. Clinton. "We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

Mrs. Clinton’s office released a statement saying she was "delighted to help cover the publisher’s losses from unpopular books by other authors, bad management decisions and bureaucratic waste."

She suggested that her husband, who served with her in the White House during the 1990s, would like to do the same with his $10 million advance from Knopf.