Posted on 08/04/2009 9:07:27 PM PDT by RobinMasters
The first lady of the United States is not elected, has no constitutional duties and receives no salary, but that doesn't mean the position is without its privileges – including a staff of 22 White House employees who make a combined nearly $1.5 million per year.
Various journalists have scoured the White House's annual report to Congress on the West Wing payroll and listed those names that serve as members First Lady Michelle Obama's staff. Combined, their salaries total $1,495,700.
By comparison, a similar examination of the 2008 payroll, printed in the Washington Post, shows First Lady Laura Bush tallied 17 staffers, who combined made roughly $1.28 million.
News of so many taxpayer-funded salaries attending the first lady – which doesn't include the White House servant staff or the Secret Service detail assigned to the first family – has prompted some commentators to question if so many staffers are necessary.
"[Michele Obama] doesn't perform any official duties. But this hasn't deterred her from hiring an unprecedented number of staffers to cater to her every whim and to satisfy her every request in the midst of the Great Recession," writes author Paul Williams in a July 7 editorial. "Mary Lincoln was taken to task for purchasing china for the White House during the Civil War. And Mamie Eisenhower had to shell out the salary for her personal secretary. How things have changed!"
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
I am sorry, but Michelle Obama needs $1.5 million entourage.
A large staff is needed to brush her shiny coat, attend to her hoofs, make sure the feed bag is filled with oats and alfalfa, hot walk her outside her stable, and saddle her up daily.
Which race track is Michelle Obama racing on?
Donkey Downs!
forget about the large entourage.....there’s something much larger in these pics....MO is a fat bottomed girl
My guess is we’re getting a lot of BFFs, highly-paid errand runners and stand-in babysitters. I mean, you can’t expect Granny and the existing WH staff to take care of 2 kids 24/7.
Heck, I get elected to office, I won’t have more than three.
Somebody has to clean those $500 sneakers!
I think much of the Whitehouse staff is considered the First Lady's "staff". It would be nice to see a list with names and titles to see who has stayed on and who has left, since I believe most of the "staff" comes with the residence. Now that I think about it... there was one guy who was military, and it's always been an assigned position as some sort of "mixer" at social events... he had been in the Whitehouse for a very long time now. I think he may have just retired.
Talk about looters...
I thought you wrote Honkey Downs at first...
LMAO!!!!!
Anybody can be made to look bad in pictures by catching them at the right moment of speaking or movement.
I think she is a pretty lady, a nice dresser, and presents an elegant presence over all.
I also think she is a radical Marxist and every bit as racist as her husband and their former pastor.
It isn’t the package, it’s the contents.
Amazingly, she and O made Vanity Fair’s Best Dressed List yesterday. Admittedly, he looks good in a suit, and he wears expensive ones. But she is a wreck!
If the staff has anything to do with her wardrobe or manners, every last one of them should be fired.
But if she’s got a staff of 22, she’ll probably use “Directed staff of 22” as a qualifier for POTUS when she follows in Hillary’s footsteps.
Good gawd, she is ugly.
You think she dresses well?
No offense, but I don’t think I’d find much in your closet that I’d like.
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