CNN

[...] House releases staff salary list July 1, 2009 White House releases staff salary list Posted: 09:25 PM ET From CNN Political Research Director Robert Yoon   White House Chief of [...]

The problem i have with Americans are we are so misinformed. I just looked up the amount the folks in Bush white house and there are just as much as Obamas and screwed up the nation.

I cant remember CNN posting Bush staff salaries giving the fact that the economy recession started as far back as 2007. I know CNN has its own agenda with Dana Bash, King and the rest of the GOP cronies working here.

It doesnt matter anyways...CNN cant save GOP lol. Your ratings will only continue to go down as it is this quarter when you came in 3rd again in prime time.

I know CNN likes to remove posting...its one of ur worlds that sickens us and drives us away when our voice cannot be heard.

If you take the salary of the top people in the Obama administration, including Obama himself, and divide the salary by the number of hours they work, each of them is actually making a little more that $3.00 (three dollars) an hour for the work they do. That is a cryin' shame.

Obama sure talks a good talk but he's not keeping his house in order. Let's have him cut their pay. OH Yes, let's have him discontinue their Medical coverage. None of them are worth a nickle.
All we get is "Obama Jama" his worthless ideas to us while he has the Treasury print money that we can't possibly cover.
Let's not forget all the deals that they will have lined up after they leave office. That's where they really rake it in. Even Dubyah makes $250K for a speaking engagement.

In private sector, a midle level manager will make easily $150K, options + stock grants etc. Compared to that these salaries are ridiculously low. Just the pressure of working in White house and the responsibilities that come along with it, doesn't matter whether they are republicans or dems they all can be paid lot more.

Like the military you do not go work for government to get rich.

I'm sure they are making plenty on the back-end... book deals, shady transactions, etc.

@@@ Proud Military Wife July 2nd, 2009 1:12 am ET
To Karen in Ohio: Regarding the sacrifice of family members of Federal Employees
_____________________________________________

We are Proud of our Troops.

America is Proud of the Supreme Sacrifice made by our Troops.

But, Criminal G.W.Bush put our Troops on Harms Way, for the Unjustified Iraq War, for his Greed for Oil. None of the 9/11 Terrorists were from Iraq. The intelligence report of WMDs was manufactured to obtain support to go to war. 4300 Troops have died. Still there is no truce in Iraq. Bush should be put to Trial and should spend in Jail the rest of his life.

To Proud Military Wife at 1:12am

Thanks to you and your husband and any children for your service.

I am also a military wife and have moved five times in eight years, to five different states. I've delivered a child while my husband was in Afghanistan, etc. True, most of these staffers' families will never experience some of the sacrifices we have experienced. But one person's sacrifice is still a sacrifice, even if someone else somewhere else has sacrificed more.

There are many ways to serve a nation, the military being one of the greatest. But let's not diminish another person's service to our nation. And thanking them for their service does not diminish our service.

God bless.

Some of you are going to send yourselves to an early grave. Your hate for anything and everything Obama says or does must have your blood pressure through the roof.

I am assistant to the assistant..to the assistant that wipes up the crap that comes out the the Dems mouths!!! Taxes, health care, global warming, spending ..yet, all Bush's fault..RIGHT?
Thank you, may I have another!

They should get paid based on performance. Get a 20 percent cut in pay like the rest of America, until they deliver a turn-around. If they can pull it off, they they get a nice bonus at end. Otherwise, suffer with the people.

It Takes Days or Months to build a House.

It Takes just Minutes to Lite a Fire and Burn / Destroy a House.

It again Takes Days or Months to Re-Build it.

--

G.W.Bush Lit a Fire and Destroyed our Economy in 8 years.

Do you Guys Expect Obama to Re-Build the Economy in just 6 Months.

TALK SENSE GUYS....... DON'T TALK LIKE IDIOTS

To Karen in Ohio: Regarding the sacrifice of family members of Federal Employees

Although I do not doubt that family members of Federal Employees sacrifice with transferring to new locations and adjusting to new schools, etc, which may be difficult to many families. The financial benefits these families receive (moving expenses, housing, guaranteed jobs, not to mention the status one has in the community and/nation).

As a proud military spouse for almost 16 years, I have dealt with moving on average every four years. We are required move to a new assignment (hopefully one that will advance my husband’s career) that means going to a new state, regardless of my feelings or if it suits my needs.
The past two moves in nine years, I had the "honor" of doing the move while my husband was deployed in Iraq. Each time, I had to sell our house ON MY OWN, pack-up our belongings and leave a job that I loved. Unlike the Federal Employees whose spouses may have better opportunity to obtain employment in the private sector, military spouses often have difficulty with finding employment. As a special educator with a master’s degree in special education, I am finding it difficult to find employment.
Karen, before you state that these Federal Employees have made “sacrifices,” I implore you to think about the numerous military spouses and their families. Just remember, we serve as well.

Considering the perpetual long hours these people work, their salaries do not seem excessive. Most could make considerably more in the private sector.

Sir: I can not believe anyone would pay Robert Gibbs the MAX salary as Press Sec.

Just less than four years now till this group is out of the WH, than maybe this country can get back on the road to recovery.

Show us yours, and by the way get back to minding your family
and local issuse that actually effect your own life and if you have a problem with the birth cirtificate thing call your senator or congressman and let them handle these issuse otherwise you sound like a whiner. Either do something or live with it. WAHH!

I can't believe the headlines in this CNN blog.

Who gives a rip about the salaries of White House staffers? The scandal of Governor from South Carolina? Michael Jackson's sad death after a pathetic life?

What about Afghanistan? What about the California budget crisis?

What's with this?

I am not Ok if:

1. White house staff Flee / Elope to Argentina (Mark Sanford)
2. Take kids on Plane rides at Tax Payor's Money (Sarah Palin)

I spent time in President Bush's administration and for the most part these are people who work very very hard and could make much more money elsewhere. They are taking a pay cut to serve the president and their country. However, there are also those cronies who are not worth the money they are paid. There were many under Bush and many under Obama. Chief among these is Reggie Love, the personal assistant to Obama. Reggie's job is to carry the backpack for Obama and follow him everywhere he goes. Blake Gottesman held this position for President Bush....the difference....Blake at his highest salary after 5 years working for the president made $72,000....Obama has chosen to pay his personal assistant (also known as "body man") as starting salary of $102,000. I guarantee you that Reggie's skills of carrying the president's bags, walking the dogs etc is not worth that in the private sector. Obama has simply chosen to offer a big kick back to his little buddy.

I still want to see this birth certificate and make sure this president and his staff even deserve to be in the oval office let alone making this kind of money...............show us the birth certificate, cnn .......whats the problem, it seems to me you pushed so hard to get him elected that you neglected to get all the answers so if theirs no problem then produce it, and despense all the rumors

You know the Bush adminstration was working hard when that 42 year old man was stealing funds from the SSAdmin. and it took someone working in the OBAMA administration to find this guy, was stealing the SSA funds off of his dead mother. To the tune of 100,000.00 By the time he gets out of prison in 25 years he will be 67 years old and ooooops he will have a claim once again. He's one to watch, then his statement "I am my mother". So maybe it will be a senile claim. The guy sure was bold, my mind would never go there, to steal from the dead, and a dead family member to top it off. Now you know why Obama said it would take him 8 years to get us going in the right direction. Sort of reminds me of the crimminal always wins, we paid him to be his dead mom, we pay his board in prison and he collects off us again, when he's aged. I think he should work in the prison 10 hours per day.

These salaries are far less than what these folks should be getting paid. You must remember several things:
1. They live in DC which is the one of the top three or four most expensive metro areas in the country. At the (disregarding other wealth)highest salaries alone many of the staffers probably can not afford to live within the city limits.
2. These folks do not work a typical 40 hour week. They all work long hours (60+ hours a week). Many of the top staffers are "on-call" at all times in the instance of a crisis.
3. These are compentent folks that would command salaries 2-10 times what they are presently earning. Instead of criticizing these folks for the salaries they earn, we should applaud them for being committed to serving the people of this country at a cost to their family, personal life, and personal wealth.

What do you all Guys here Expect?

White House Staff should get paid $ 9 / per Hour...... Ha Ha Ha

Just wondering... why is this a story & why are people so upset? Every adminstration has to hire people.

Democrats and Republicans really need to figure out how to work together rather than arguing amongst one another. Really – how is this arguing helpful?

I support the Obama White House Staff. I am OK with their Pay Checks, because they disclose their earnings.

I am not Ok with undisclosed incomes, such as:

1. Wall Street Crooks embazzling public money.
2. Mortgage Lenders defrauding Homeowners.
3. Oil Cartels' price gauging.
4. Healthcare Executives accumulating wealth at sick patients' cost.
5. AIG and Bank of America taking private jet rides from bailed out funds.

What's truly amazing is how every story - dental caries, Shake and Bake, Oxy Clean, the lump of green putty a man in Hoboken found in his armpit this morning - becomes an opportunity for Obama bashing from the permanently aggrieved. We get it folks, you don't like him, in fact you loathe him, despise every breath he takes, begrudge him the hair he grows, the food he eats, the unfair advantage he takes of the law of gravity to remain on the earth and of electro magnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces to keep himself together. But honestly, Johnny One Notes, haven't you got anything else to say? It's wearing mighty thin, and it doesn't take a real keen eye or ear to figure out you're not contributing anything fresh to the national conversation, just hate, hate, hate.

time to cut wages on ALL in govt. R, D, ALL!!!

To all the Idiots who are Yapping about White House Staff Salaries:

1. Only Extraodinary Sharp, Qualified people are Hired in White House.

2. These Extraodinary Sharp, Qualified people are capable of earning much more than what White House pays them.

3. So it is worthless to Grumble and make a Fuss.

DOES IT MAKE SENSE??

It's all relative. $172k in the DC metro area is typical middle class family income.

In one way or another, everyone in DC makes their living off the government. The area is full of very wealthy people who own federal contracting businesses, whose incomes are entirely based on federal funds. And I'm not talking about huge federal contractors, either. There are thousands of small and medium private industry firms in DC that contract to the government for two or three times what a civil servant gets paid. They also have no accountability to the public.

Obama's White House Staff Deserve their Salaries, Because they all trying Very Hard to Help us get out of the Mess Bush & Company has created for us.

Bush & Co didnot deserve all the Salaries they received, Because we paid them and they Screwed Us.

Considering the WH Staff is working / Living in the DC area, these salaries are peanuts. Not to mention they are running Executive Branch of the most power country in the world.

Michelle in Arizona – Would you, by any chance, be one of those newly hired Obama employees? Perhaps an immigrant? Or is it that your ability to write the way you do is a reflection of our "fine" government operated school system?

Profitt -That's what THIS government does, but if you had a grasp of what the founding fathers intended for this government, as written in the constitution, you would see that what this administration is doing is not anywhere near the mark. We'll all be like CA soon.

reminds me of MC HAMMER... let's just give anyone and everyone a job- Obama won't have any friends in the end.

Most of these people would be earning much more in the private sector. Obama selected a highly qualified staff. Lets not forget that Rove did not even have a college degree which is amazing. What is the problem here? People in private sector are making millions while tax payors are bailing them out and we are complaining that Obama put a freeze on salaries. I don't at all remember these arguments 8 years ago. Further Clinton/Gore cut the size of gov., left a surplus and Bush grew the gov. and left a stock market and banking system in shambles and the worst debt in US history. I would like to see wall street or ceo's in private sector work for this.

Brandon: you are completely right about them not being idiots. They got those jobs by being lobbyist, BIG donors, friends of friends and agents for leftist organizations..It's clear to me and you.

If Bush was in office all of CNN and the other liberals would be crying about how the economy is in shambles and people are starving while Bush and his staffers live the good life. But..... with Obama it is suddenly okay.

All the brilliant neo-cons here would prefer we pay people minimum wage, hire illegal aliens like Mitt Romney or just outsource the jobs to a third-world nation. Who knew you need high salaries to attract top talent?

For what they have to do, and considering how expensive it is to live in DC, I find these salaries surprisingly low.
I also applaud the Obama administration for releasing these figures.
I would guess that what is actually behind the furious comments of the right-wingers here is their frustration at seeing Democrats gain more and more power (so much for the vaunted "permanent Republican majority") and seeing Obama's policies start to work.
The stock market is indeed up, as a few here have noted. Our IRA with Fidelity is currently shooting up in value. My husband lost his IT job in May, but he has had several phone calls from recruiters, and expects to get something else quite soon.
We and almost all of our many friends and relatives are very, very happy that Obama is our president. We are even happier to see that the young people of today are trending more and more liberal and are identifying more and more with Democrats. The future looks brighter already.

To me, the overpaids are the so-called sport celebrities.
Nobody worths that much. Most of the White House staff spent most of their lives in school while the athletes spent most of their time to play.

Calling people racist because they disagree with the Presidents actions is getting OLD AND TIRED!

Time to grow up people........

They didn't get jobs at the White House by being idiots. The people that are complaining are idiots. Maybe go get a better education and then you'll realize that the government can't pay itself morons. It is the American citizens responsibility to ensure the government has the necessary funds to run the show, hense taxes. Half the people on the Staff make 40,000 or below. Several telemarketers make that same salary. How about stfu and be quiet. Someone hand these people a Bush binky.

We already know that elective officials makes pretty good money but to me this none of my business, all i really care about is,are they doing what they were elective to do and i think so far they are. They have a really hard job to do especially the president and i definetly dont care about what he make because i feel he deserves every dime of it when we are sleep he is up worrying about what to do about this country, how to keep it safe etc,. So to me THEY DESERVE IT as long as they are doing their job. And the rebublicans need to stay out of this one.

I asked my two Senators and Representative to detail the salaries and staff (and their salaries) of all the so-called "Czars" that have been hired. I also asked who they report to, and who has oversight authority for them.

So far...nothing but chirping crickets.

for those who say they are making a sacrifice and are serving thier country. I served my country in the military for 10+ years and made considarable less. and yes it was a twenty four hour a day job. 6+ months away from my family and YES i lived in wash/d.c. area. stop the b.s. about the cost of living and get the truth straight..

So the salaries sampled across the board are on par with the Bush administration ... yet Obama has added 50,000 new federal positions and too many new Czars to count. Lets total the paychecks, shall we?

the most overpaid person is that community organizer and he is also the most under qualified clown too.

Are you done critisizing the WH 's staff salary ?
I thought their salaries are low, very low to compare to what they have to do. Just imaging, It takes less than 500 people to run the most powerful office in the world ? Can you imaging how much time, effort, stress and many other awful things these people will endure for the next 4 or 8 years. Have you ever worked under tremendous stress condition ? Have you ever worked 60-70 hours a week, for straight 3 years, i did it, and i know how hard it is, nevertheles, i did it because i love my job, i enjoyed my job, i took the proud ownership of what i do.
I never afraid of hard work. Always have " yes, i can do it " attitude.
My sacrifice paid off. Thank God, I am still working today and making a good living, over 100K.
The US government is running the world of 6 billions people. they are doing the impossible job. It's hard ! Try to run the world, folks.
To see how much you want to be paid. Give them a break folks.

Greetings, everyone. To "No New Taxes," let me say that yours was definitely the most practical feedback I've read all night. You're right that having the job titles in ALL CAPS was hard to read. The reason is that in our haste to get "The News" to you, Our Readers, we cut and paste the names and titles from the actual White House report, which listed the titles in ALL CAPS. But because I like your moxie, I have gone back and put them into lower case. And as an added bonus, i put the names in BOLD, free of charge. If I made any typos, they were inadvertent, but I'm sure you'll let us know.

A few of you have mentioned the abundance of "assistant" positions. "Assistant to the President" is a fairly common job title for upper-level White House staff; you'll notice that even Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff, is an "assistant to the president." So an "assistant" in the White House isn't necessarily the same type of assistant that Dolly Parton or Lily Tomlin played in "9 to 5."

thay are getting paid,, hope you do us( U.S.) a good job

why are they all paid the same, surely the chief of staff as head of the WHO should be paid most?? also why is the deputy national security advisor paid the same as the real advisor, same for all other deputies.

The government and public sector has a crazy pay scale, totally unreflective of real life.

@Karen in Ohio

People do this in every administration. I didn't hear these comments coming from democrats when Bush was President. All of a sudden, these salaries are to be respected? All of President Bush's staff deserved every penny as well, and were patriots as well. You are making it a partisan issue by only thanking those who serve in the Obama administration and not just saying all administrations.

@Profitt

What Stock market are you looking at? It is no where near as high as it was when it was under the Bush presidency, where there were record highs in the stock market. Unfortunately for America, Democrats were voted back into leadership positions in Congress and the economy, and stock market, crashed as a result.

@New Yorker

"YOU the over-tax(ed)-payers are footing the bill for these government employees..."

What's NEW about that? Isn't that what governments DO?
-----------------
-Try living in CALIFORNIA!!!
The most taxed state, and, the most mismanaged budget!!!!

These guys are working their backsides off 24-7 for what? We have allowed the Banking CEOs to offer bonuses three times the salary these White House staffers are getting. Just because people work for the Government or the White House does not mean they should have a salary freeze or less than we pay [with taxpayer money] some worthless CEOs. These people appear to answer their mail and phone messages too .That is more than the Mortgage Depts of the banks are doing these days..

It's my opinion that the White House would collape without this highly dedicated group and they deserve more than they are getting. The salary freeze was not respectful and it was not fair in light of what Pres Obama has allowed the banks to do with OUR money. Let's level the playing field .Either halt the bonus problem at the Banks or treat the WH Staff with some dignity and an increase in pay.

Must be nice... My unemployment is nowhere near even those that made $36k, let alone the $172k people. Mr. Obama, I voted for you, please redistribute some of that wealth my way...

To: Terry from West Texas

Larry Ellison is entitled to his $10,000.00 per hour, he is entitled to the money even if he does nothing. It is his company, like Bill Gates, he had a good idea and created Oracle. Where do you get the right to determine what someone should be paid. This is a common theme among democrat/ socialist Obama supporters,"it is not fair, they make too much money, limit their pay, tax the rich." Socialism has never worked, not even once. I too hope Obama"s policys fail. If his plans fail, capitalism wins, America wins, everyboldy that wants to earn their place in life wins.

HELP! Hire the 30% Disabled Vet with her Masters Plus 30 and years of varied work experiences. My out-of-the-box thought process would be of tremendous assistance to your platform.
You haven't offered me a seat at the table. I'm just a lowly special needs EMD (self-contained) high school teacher.
To make what those staffers make for one year would put me along the path to accomplishing my goals: zero debts; fix the homestead; fix the alternate homestead (daughter's house); further education at the PhD level; put a few pennies away for fastly approaching retirement.

Why can't I work with the Disable Vets? Why can't I assist the Health Care Initiative? Why can't I assist the School Reform? Why can't I co-liason with the Faith-based organizations? Why can't I engage the Service Learning Programs/Projects to assist the inner city students?
See, you really do need me on your payroll!

All I know is that the stock market is on fire right now. I don't know anybody who's NOT making money. Seriously, not one single person. Everything is up across the board. We should get a big spike during the 4th of July week. It's looking like its really getting ready to take off.

God Bless prosperous times again. I can actually be just a buy-and-hold investor and still make a killing in this Market !

Spend baby spend, Socialism at its best.............GLY

These people are not doing these jobs for the salary, obviously. And the cost of living in DC is outrageous.

to Karen in ohio.

I served my country for 12 yaers and was forced out of military do to injuries sustained in the line of duty. I damn sure didn't make near that much and had to uproot my family every 2-3 years. get to .... and get your info straight before running the perverbial mouth..

"no new taxes" - read the article again. The Press Secretary makes the same as the other people you mentioned. They all make the maximum salary of $172,000.

The article doesn't mention that Obama has added 78,000 new jobs to the government (taxpayer) payroll since he took office just few months ago. YOU the over-tax(ed)-payers are footing the bill for these government employees; their salaries, benefits, and pensions. Do you know how many billions or trillions of $$$$ that will cost you over their lifetimes???? Wake up before it's too late!!! Join A Tea Party and stop supporting the Obama regime.

Anyone who does not understand why the top advisers to the President make the salaries that they do is both completely ignorant of the pay cut that these individuals take by working in the public sector and the time, effort and experience required to do any of these jobs. Lawrence Summers for example made close to $600,000 a year as president of Harvard. These are the standard salaries for people in upper level public positions, are completely appropriate and are clearly similar to the salaries of Bush's staff.

some of the posters on here are idiots...obviously they do not understand how much $$ some of these people are sacrificing to serve the country. they could be making way more in private enterprse. do you know how much some of the execs in our capitalist system make???? try hundreds of millions (100,000 times more than their workers!!!). secondly, the article specifically states that obama froze their pay on the first day of his term at the bush rates. thirdly, please write things that make sense...not stupid crap that show you blindly oppose obama on things he has no control over, has done well, or make absolutely no sense. your bias, blindness, and ignorance is astounding!

When comparied to equal responsibilities within most US companies these people are grossly underpaid. It is surprising that qualified people will want to do the job. BTW why do we need to know this information?

Karen in Ohio – You, my dear, have been hoodwinked.

This is nothing new; Dubya's people x 8yrs made this much, as did Clinton's, as did Bush I's, and so on. Where was the fussing about Rove, Rice (prior State Dept.), etc.?? People at this level work incredibly long hours and work weekends and holidays. Also, consider the cost of living in the DC area. And I don't think these staff have Federal civil service protection-so they can be fired at any time. For all you gripers.....you try working like there for 60 days and then check back, OK?

It doesn' make sense that a person with limited amount of education
can make upwards of 60 -70 thousand dollars a year in an industrial setting, as labourers ,and harvard graduates are earning roughly the
same amount. Somebody missed the boat on this one.

They deserve what they get paid. If they worked in the private sector, they could earn double that and more. Who would want to do what these people do, the hours they work, the sacrifices they make, their private lives exposes, etc., etc. Not me!!!

Wow, some people here will gripe about anything. I suppose everyone at the White House should be expected to work for free? Most if not all of these people could make several times their White House salaries (at least) in the private sector. Geez.

Some of these people listed have never had a real job. Real work would put them in a mental institution. I don't think that he has anyone worth the pay given.

I suppose an Ivy League education does pay off. One may not know anything but they have the money and they know the buzz word "Yes we can".

With luck, we have less than four years of this.

"487 people on the White House staff. Obama could never get to the top job in the private sector, that's for sure."

Yeah, I know, "phoenix86," it's not like he's President of the United States of America or anything like that. Clearly, Obama has no capacity to get to the top of anything. Thanks for blowing the lid off this, you obvious genius, you.

Obama paid his people less than GWB paid for his people
Now isn't that interesting.
Plus there are salary freeze which means these people get less and no salary increase either
and yet they are responsible for the country as big as USA

They should be payed double to clean up Bush and Chenny's messes.
Cut congress pay since they don't seem to be doing too much now days.
At least the salaries of the say NO party. They are taking up time and space now days. That money would give the administration people a nice raise.

If all of America is unanimous in thinking that members of the board of directors in companies make astronomically and unduly excessive amounts of money and compensation, why is it that we are helpless to do anything about it? Is there nothing we can do? It seems that it is only a matter of time of these people raiding the companies for all they're worth, that we will no longer be able to afford to buy any products any more. All the money in the companies is going to a very small group of people who do absolutely nothing. They are "supposed" to be impartial and ensure that company's are honest and truthful, but they don't even do that... every single one of those people signed off on AIG ! Enron! Fanny Mae! They did nothing. They sat on the Board, and collected a paycheck, driving up the prices for all of us. Is there NOTHING we can do about it!??!!?????

I would love to see the job descriptions for these people and weigh the salary against the amount of work they actually do.

This could also be done with the congress. The congress should be put on incentive rates. No production worthwhile, no pay.

In all honesty, I feel that the entire salary system is out of line. The country hurting and more and more hired at these rates. Very poor decisions making.

All are over qualified and under paid. I cannot believe that this is what we pay people, smart and energetic, people to help run our country. I am stunned particularly during this time of high stress and conflict. I agree with Robin...they could make much more somewhere else. AND let's not forget the cost of living in DC!

jesus!
Most physicians make twice that!
many nurses make as much....what is the motivation here? Public service? fame? a higher goal?

These people complaining about their salaries......let me ask you this, what were the salaries of Bush's cronies and the kickbacks they got with their no bid contracts, didn't Cheney and Bush file their tax returns in the millions? This is tiny in comparison, and for the mess these people were left and have to clean up, they are still underpaid....so quit whining.

This makes me sick! anyone that thinks that they are not paid enough makes me rather ill. I'm glad that professional athletes are paid more than these people, atleast they have mostly positive outlook for the country. I use to be for Obama, but the way he's handling this country makes me want to vomit. I hope those white house staff is payin' their taxes too!

No matter who is in office, government always seems to be a crime in progress.

Are you serious... the "Press Secretary" earns more than our nation's National Security Advisor?!? Than the Director of the National Economis Cousel.

Seems like an awful lot of money to be paying for a little boy dressed in man's clothing, to be waltzing around and acting all cavalier and snobbish.

compared to the bush staff, these salaries are very similar.

why are the republican commenters ranting and raving?

clearly they have no valid arguments.

again, they prove they are the party of no.

They deserve their salaries; however if ant of these leaders feel like being charitable give any of them my e-mail. Please?

The article doesn't mention that President Obama has added 78,000 new federal jobs to the payroll. Another step in his Socialist plan. And guess who is paying their salary and benefit package and pension. YOU! (well, unless you are one of the privileged non-working, no tax-paying class).

"Change you can believe in" if you want the government to have total control of our lives. Maybe in a few years the Iraqis will come and liberate us from the Obama regime.

They don't live on Main Street, for sure!

You have Coach Krzyzewski (Duke's Head Basketball Coach) making 3.5 Million to teach 18 year olds how to set a pick and roll and the ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT AND DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR FOR COUNTERTERRORISM AND HOMELAND SECURITY making $172,200?? Seems like there is something seriously wrong with this statement!! No offense Coach K!!!

It is easy to see who are the democrats and who are the republicans with the comments. Of course the repub don't think anyone should make money but themselves and they're rich buddies.
For the area they live in and the amount they make they are way underpaid and anyone who says any different is just playing dirty politics. Hopefully the republicans will lose further offices and we can restore the nation for the middle class again instead of Big oil and Big healthcare insurance industry.

So why doesn't he explain the details of the auto "bailout" ? The weird stuff in the "cap and trade" bill totally unrelated to climate change. This is just a little shell game to grab the attention of CNN and others who ignore the important stuff.

It is good to see the representatives of the party of "NO!" crawl out from under their rocks and give their take on what they think a public servant should make. I wonder what would be a comparable wage in the private sector with bonuses.

Let's see if they are worth that by their ability to re-employ me and other workers who make under $30K that don't have jobs and can't find work because all these high priced people in these corporations and politicians sent our jobs overseas and took bonuses to lay people off that make our low wages so they can stay in their greedy lifestyle with their portfolios.

Get to work DC and get me a job!

It's fine to say government is wasting money and we shouldn't pay people so much. However, maybe if you pay them more, we'll get better people who want to work in government? After all, you get what you pay for. Who would take any job that paid less than $100,000 a year? I don't know anyone with a good education who doesn't have a job and make a comfortable salary.

Contrast these salaries with CEOs like Larry Ellison of Oracle, who earns about $10,000 per hour (google it if you don't believe me). I would like to follow that guy around with a camera for an hour to see what a $10,000 hour's work looks like. Then, I am sure we can find some Indian executives who can do the same thing for a measly thousand per hour.

They would have us believe that they are worth 400 times what the average American worker, like you and me, are worth. They would have you believe that some mystical law of the universe sets their salaries at the appropriate rate. The plain truth is, they set their own pay. It would be nice if American businessmen's accomplishments matched their self-esteem.

Too many ignorant people posting. What is 179,000 bucks and having to deal and put up the all the crap they do every day?

Those making over 100,000 are still under paid as well as those earning under 40,000.

In the private sector, most of those people would earn twice; yet they are willing to take less.

Yeah, some people say they should be paid what they are getting and I think that's a bunch of baloney.

Sorry to say the school teacher who makes 40,000 may well deserve more BUT that depends on her experience as well as her qualifications. Teachers in general are under paid and we all know that but the choice is theirs'. If you are dedicated to teaching then get a job on Wall Street.

Last weekend I help to pickup the tab for my friends class dinner. It was her way of saying thanks to her students; yet, she knew almost every dollar came out of her own pocket. She is indeed in the same salary scale as the teacher who wrote a comment here. I feel sorry for her and the other great teachers who are being short changes BUT it's what they love to do.

End of the school year, she is more than $500 in the red for having to purchase things from her own pocket. I see no reason to complain about the salary the White House staff mskes. If the President was in the private sector, he would be earning several million per year and that does not include perks.

What a response to this article; many people think they are getting too much (probably Republicans, and we don't know how much their Bush counterparts earned during the Bush Administration), and some people think they are being paid too little. Their perks are long, long hours; combing through copious amounts of information from every state in the country..that's why they need all these assistants; some people writing here don't have a clue how difficult their jobs really are. I say most are qualified, or overqualified, and underpaid.

The president and the white house staff should get paid more.
They get bashed and scrutinized by everyone. They have so much
responsibility. Cost of living in D. C. is high. If they are rich to begin with it's okay. They should make more than s$200.000. Look @ the CEO of AIG and others. They make millions and they are bankrupt.
CBW

They should get paid on what they deserve by work experience and collge levels of degree. Dont put a cap or restricitons on an individual to strife better then the next indiviudal who slack from acheving to do better in life.

even though government workers are paid less than in the private sector, it is almost impossible to fire government employees. and they get better holidays and pensions. so they make less money for a lot more job security.

These salaries are very, very low and an embarrasment for the demands of these jobs.

They are paid a whole lot more than the US Military who put their lives on the line even in training. They do this for the power, influence and what it does to their resume when they make millions as lobbyist. The average civil servant makes $75,000.00 per year compaired to civilian counter parts who average $61,000.00 per year.

Scott–You're a teacher and "only" make 54k per year??? These "assistants" are assisting the President in forming policy to run the country. They work 20 hour days responding to every worldwide crisis. Not to diminish the role of teachers, but you work 9 months out of the year, and complain about being under paid and overworked. Whether you agree with the politics or not, White House staffers have HUGE responsibility for disproportionately low pay.

with the impatience of some of the voters and the regular bashing, they deserve every penny

they work hard, are making good tough decisions

thank you all for serving and you are doing a great job

thank you mr. pres

Well that is a sad bit of news – how will he buy more dead fish?

Yeah! Why don't they work for free?! You pinheads. Wall Streeters, bankers and insurance CEOs make orders of magnitude above these salaries, and D.C. is an expensive place to live. Plus the first graf talks about the pay freeze.

It's probably why he released these numbers - that and it's his job - to demonstrate that not a single one of these people is in it for the paycheck. They're all way too talented to be taking such a hit.

This indeed is leadership by example. Keep applying that pressure, sir!

What they make doesn't concern me. It really isn't that much compared to the private sector. But what does concern me is that Obama has more staffers going in than Bush had at the end of his term. But then again he needs all the help he can get.

And, because it would be preposerous for anyone taking government money to get any sort of bonus, they have all agreed to turn any money over to the government should they ever decide to write a book or lobby the government.

Change for fools!

It's funny to hear those of you whining about how much these people make. I guess you didn't catch the fact that their salaries are capped where Bush's folks were paid. I'd say the people who are tasked with getting us out of the mess we're in ought to be paid at least as much as those that got us into it.

Jonathan Favreau is 27 years old. Exactly what has he done to deserve a $172,200 salary other than write exactly what Mr. Obama tells him to write?

@Enough

I agree about the taxes. But they are STILL Dubya's taxes. The Obama tax changes don't take effect until NEXT year. Did you complain last year to George???

Thats good money,but nowhere near what Limbaugh makes for telling lies for exxonMobil.His real salary is unknown because its all bag money thats put in Swiss and offshore accts.

How about a list of all the czar's that dictator Obama has made appear out of thin air. We're paying for them too and those aren't even constitutional positions. He just created them as another layer of robots to brainwash people with higher taxes, govco health, govco motors, a pay czar, a consumer rights czar, soon will be a thermostat czar, air conditioning czar, potato chip czar, burger czar, and of course a czar to oversee the czars who reports directly to king Barack Insane Obma.

What are the "czar's" making?

It's incredible to believe that the taxpayers of this country are paying Robert Gibbs $172,000 to get up on stage every day so that he can refuse to answer questions from the press, answer staged questions and in general, lie through his teeth at all other times because either Rahm the Nazi or Obama the Idiot told him to.

so how much is mom getting to keep the kids

Since we pay the salaries can we vote on how much to cap them at instead of letting the political allies making that decision for us?

I wanna be a fat cat democrat and give away all the American people's hard earned money to my rich friends in Wall Street and the Car industry.

This is news because?

Ahhh....this transperancy feels so good! Now, if only Cheney could go back in hiding.

Most of these cabinet members and advisors are multimillionaires, do they really need to take their high pay even when the economy is struggling so? Somehow we need to look for ways to reduce the government size, cost and salaries. I would encourage every Administration employee to take no more than $100K at least until the economy comes back.

Meanwhile..., 618,000 hard working Americans were laidoff last week.

President Obama i want a job!

Recession hasn't hurt those people. I realize they live in the Washington area, but $172,000 is a lot of money. I'm sure they have alot of other perks we don't hear about......

I wonder how much money ACORN and the SEIU are giving them to support their struggles?

they are all paid too much! is obama going to tax them too! ok people....get ready to pay up.....spread the wealth workers....us welfare people need more money......yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

At least we are getting our money's worth with these Obama staffers!

Excuse me??
$172,000 plus health insurance and other benefits?!
While a third of the country goes to bed hungry and can't afford health insurance because they are taxed to the hilt to cover these outrageous salaries and benefits.
These federal jerks work for us and yet they are paid better than we,
their employers.

A few things to remember before folks start to complain about the salaries of President Obama's staff.

1 – Most if not all of the staff have taken pay cuts, some of them quite large, to work for us, the American taxpayor, in this administration.

2 – In addition to that, many of them have had to uproot their families, and move them to the Washington DC area, where the cost of living is significantly higher.

3 – They do this knowing that the job requirements are going to be taxing – long hours, few if any holidays, and a constant stress level that will take years off their life expectancy.

They do this for us, the American people. They do it because they believe in our country. They are patriots, putting their own lives on hold for 4 or hopefully 8 years of President Obama's time in the White House.

Before you sit down to write your comments, ask yourself one simple question – Would you sacrifice your life for the next 8 years for your country? Would you uproot your family, take a pay cut, and sign up for 80 hour work weeks?

For me, all I can do is say Thank You to all who serve in President Obama's administration. God bless you for your integrity, your committment to our nation, and your patriotism.

Throw in the benifits...you got to admit...not bad for saying "Yes, we can!"

This is a disgrace, I'm embarrassed by this. Well, for starters, they don't make that much, is cool but is not like they're shaking people down...Nixon did that, LOL!! But the point is I don't wanna know, I don't. I got in trouble for asking in college and now I'm finding out one of the most prestigious places on earth has a bounty on. Good lord, no wonder everyone deserves...

Yeah, that sounded good, right? Sweet! LOL!!!

Looks like Obama is "spreading the wealth".

I am surprised at the low salaries. I thought the U.S. would treats its people better and not be so cheap. With the responsibilities these people have, they deserve at least $500,000 a year and your President should be making no less than a couple of million a year.

Terry Valeriote

of the redistribution of wealth? It seems he only wants to redistribute YOUR wealth, not that of his friends.

Don't ever listen to what Obama says: watch what he DOES.

I can't believe how rediculously low some of these salaried are. How do you survive on $36,000 a year living in Washington D.C. / Virginia?

I glad to see I make more than some of these people.

how about these politicians start working for a ceremonial dollar a year until the federal government gets out of bankruptcy. The execs from the auto industry were asked to do the same thing.

these people are assistants for god sake....being paid over one hundred thousand dollars....I am a school teacher and only earn fifty four thousand per year.....?????????????????????????

They all deserve to earn more than 172K plus.

That's interesting. I thought white house officials made more money than that. I'm really surprised because my university president and 18 or so vice presidents make much much more than the highest paid white house officials.

He's spending more than Bush in everyway possible. NONE OF OBAMAS STAFFERS ARE WORTH THAT MUCH MONEY! SHAME ON YOU, OBAMA!

I don't think that's extravagant, considering what CEOs make. Not at all.

Every member of the White House staff is incredibly talented and deserve every cent they're paid. Most of them could be making double or triple their salaries in the private sector, but they chose to serve our country in our time of great need, and I for one, thank them all.

We see from this list that the salaries of all the Obamaczars are kept secret from the taxpayers.

All are underqualified and overpaid.

so what,how much does lou dobbs , john king ,bill bennett, john roberts , dana bash, make.why dont cnn show their salaries, and cnn why dont you just grow up,what is the big deal. who cares, we need to investagate cnn, oh and how much does ricardo sanchez make?

Why does the world need to know this?

487 people on the White House staff. Obama could never get to the top job in the private sector, that's for sure.

What about all these czars Obama has appointed, how much are they costing the taxpayer?

Glad he doesn't want to cap his peoples pay.

What about all the Czar's what do they earn? How much money are we paying them. Their part of the WH staff.

What about all the PERKS these people get. Guess Obama forgot to mention that one. Good Lord, I have never seen so many "Assistant" positions in my life.

No surprises here.

And we wonder why our taxes are so high?? They get the best salaries and the best health care, compliments of the tax payers. Nice when you get to determine your own salary at other peoples expense. This should be voted on by the taxpayers!!

There are close to 500 people on that list and only 1/5 of them earn over $100,000 the rest make far less money.

The lion share of the people on that list are middle income works who make below $40K. Many of these folks could easily earn 2-3 more if they chose to work in the private sector.