Was I the only one thinking (excuse my language), “no fucking shit, companies across the country are requiring pay CUTS! Should we be impressed by your Sr staff having a pay freeze?”
No, we should criticize him for doing what we think he should do!
Is there a point here?
The point is that attempting to make a big deal of the pay freeze was lame because others in this country are taking pay cuts so it isn’t something to brag about.
So he shouldn’t have done it? Or he shouldn’t have told anybody? Wow, you are really looking for something…anything.
Day 2 in the office…well…he is taking steps, isn’t he? Or are you going to be criticising everything for the next 4 years?
Impressed? No. He is just doing the right thing.
He is doing the right thing, I am not going to bitch for years (I’m impressed so far), but I do feel that it was news released that would have been better presented by a staff member.
maybe it’s more of a media issue then…mainstream media suck (left or right). They’re more busy trying to impress their customer base than reporting and analysing facts.
What is next!!! No jackets in the oval office!!!
Wow, no one gets a raise on the 2d day on the job. Brutal…
It’d be interesting to see what they’re being paid in the first place…maybe in comparison to the same positions just vacated by the Bush staffers.
My guess would be the same amount as the Bush staffers
.
$100K/yr, I believe.
Or are you going to be criticising everything for the next 4 years?
Was that rhetorical question 
~Matt
What about the free lunches?
$100K/yr, I believe.
Any Sr. staff member that makes over $100k/yr.
$100K/yr, I believe.
He froze the pay of anyone making over $100k per year. For the most part, I’m assuming that the senior staffers are all new in their jobs, replacing outgoing Bush staffers. I don’t know that any new staffer would have expected a raise in less than a year under any circumstances. I’m also just curious what the new staffer is making to start compared to each outgoing staffer. That might give us some insight as to whether his “freeze” actually means anything or whether it’s simply a nice sound bite.
US Government pay information:
http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa031200a.htm
Note that the president only gets $400k a year and hasn’t had a raise since 2001. Of course the benefits in housing and travel expenses aren’t so bad.
Senior Executive Service (SES) pay scales. I am not sure exactly what level cabinet members would be, but SES pay peaks at just under $200k.
In all reality none of the people at this level are being paid anywhere near what somebody of equivalent responsibility would get in the private sector.
true dat. our CEO made $45 million last year, while laying off thousands, screwing people out of bonuses, health care, vacation. not to mention no pay raises for the better part of the past 5 years. and of course all blaming it on the ecomony, after we announce yet another year of record profit.
In all reality none of the people at this level are being paid anywhere near what somebody of equivalent responsibility would get in the private sector
I understand all of that. My point was that if he’s paying his staffers more to start than the same position was being paid by the Bush administration, than his “freeze” is nothing other than political rhetoric. I honestly don’t know.
FWIW, positions within the federal government can also have their pay grade changed relatively easily with a relatively small change to the job description itself.
yeah lets hear it for the Big O! With such brilliant Executive orderss as this one I feel a full economic recovery brewing within the week. That leaves health care for next week, Iraq, Social Security and Education in February. Geesh, this POTUS job is cake!
And what is YOUR solution to our country’s problems…it’s easy to criticize, hard to come up with alternatives, eh ?