Sunday, July 1, 2012

Salaries Are Not Too High




See White House salaries here: 2012 Annual Report to Congress on White House Staff

The White House staffing budget has increased this year.  Every time this happens, critics complain that our fiscal reform should start with the White House and Congressional salaries.  I disagree.

The above link lists the salaries for the various positions in the White House.  The President makes $400K per year, significantly less than LBJ made in the 1960's when adjusted for inflation.  Members of Congress make $174K (leaders get a bit more).  This is about the same as the 1960's compensation when adjusted.  Members are eligible for pensions after 5 years, but can't receive those pensions until age 55-62 (depending on years served) unless they serve a total of 25 years at which point they can start receiving their pension immediately.

I don't have a problem with these compensations plans.  They are all completely in line with industry standards.  The entire congressional and presidential budgets combined total around $6 billion.  That seems like a lot, but it's extremely insignificant when we consider the nation's total budget is over $6 Trillion.  To put it in perspective, if our family makes $60,000/year, the cost of running the household would be about $60.  I frequently have that much in my wallet...

Our money problems in this country are not a result of operations spending.  Our problems are a direct result of entitlement spending.  As a nation, we seem to be "Penny wise and pound foolish".  We need to take on some much bigger cuts than Congressional and White House salaries.

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