Karl Rove Gets A Raise...So Do Other Top WH Staffers...

[im10ashus]

President Bush’s most senior aides -- the ones who hold the coveted title of "assistant to the president" -- recently received a $4,200 cost-of-living bump-up in compensation and now earn a top pay rate of $165,200, according to an internal White House list of staff salaries. The list was compiled by the administration for the year that ended June 30 and is displayed both alphabetically, and by dollar ranking, below. Those at the bottom of the White House staff pay scale -- the folks answering phones and responding to the president’s mail, for example -- remain stuck at last year’s pay floor of $30,000, according to a year-to-year comparison of White House data obtained by National Journal.

At that level, the White House aide who keeps a log of the gifts sent to the president makes about as much as the average starting pay for a public school teacher. At $15 an hour, that’s almost three times the national minimum wage of $5.15. (Congress is debating this summer whether to raise the minimum wage, while the administration prefers to leave it where it is).

White House salaries and job titles are largely controlled at the discretion of the president, within the confines of the overall budget approved by Congress for the Executive Office of the President. For example, Anita McBride, chief of staff to the first lady, earns $149,000 this year, which is a jump of $16,000 above her listed pay rate in 2005 -- with no change in title. In 2005, the peak of the White House pay scale was $161,000 for 19 heavyweight job titles.

On this year’s list, the White House omitted Bush aides who left the White House payroll in recent weeks, even if the president intends to fill the posts at this year’s rate of pay. One anomaly: Unlike predecessor I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, David Addington, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was not included on the White House roster, even though he holds a dual title as assistant to the president.

cont'd...

http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0711nj1.htm

[EstimatedProphet]

1. And the people that actually do the work in DC get nothing

And it's kept that way, because they want the government worker's salaries to appear low in order to mask the high cost of living there.

[Beaverhausen]

2. Raising the minimum wage should be a big democratic issue this election

I think Hillary is spearheading a movement to rescind the congressional raises until the minimum wage is raised nationwide.

It WILL work!

on edit:

here is a link to the article about this in the new Time Magazine
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1211589,00.html

[RobertSeattle]

3. But those 30K/year people are padding their resumes BIG TIME

[smokey nj]

4. Fabulous!!!!.....

Isn't it great that not only do they get to destroy our country, but we also have the pleasure of paying them to do it. Bush and the RNC should pay Rove, not the American people, he's nothing but a political operative.

[Jane Austin]

5. Which raises the question once again . . . why is a political operative,

who apparently spends all his time in the White House scheming and plotting to retain a Permanent Republican Majority, being paid by the taxpayers at all?

Rather than getting a raise, shouldn't he be getting an indictment for political use of government property?

Just asking.

[im10ashus]

6. He should be living in a gated community.

And by gated, I mean somewhere like Gitmo.

[bdamomma]

7. we can't bend over any further

or we will be kissing the ground, if we aren't already there yet. they are totally insulting to us.

[Crankie Avalon]

8. Plus, their government salaries are just chips and dip to them, anyway...

...the way they really make their money is by handing out multimillion dollar "no bid" contracts to their suitably grateful private sector buddies.

[madmark]

9. its the cia agent compromising bonus