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 ...
And there's all kinds of stories about her screwing that up egregiously. Like the time she got CDs for the British heads of state that were full of crappy rap and hip-hop songs. It took effort to give them music so far away from their personal tastes. Bonus: the CDs had the wrong regional settings, so they didn't work in Britain anyway.
Note to michelle - If your wardrobe wouldn’t pass the dress code in most corportate offices, you shouldn’t wear it to represent our country. Bare arms like that are offensive in many parts of the world and reflect very poorly on your level of respect for other dignitaries. Save it for your down time, cause no one wants to see your sweaty pits. And a dress print that looks like a “bed-in-a-bag” is just wroooonnnngggg!. Can you imagine if Laura had ever dressed like that? She would have been torn to shreds by the same people that laud michelle.
If only the American people knew........... Ah, but the Canadians do!
First Lady Requires More Than Twenty Attendants: Recession, depression, What, Michelle Worry? July 7, 2009
From Dr. Paul L. Williams
In my own life, in my own small way, I have tried to give back to this country that has given me so much, she said. See, that’s why I left a job at a big law firm for a career in public service, Michelle Obama.
No, Michele Obama does not get paid to serve as the First Lady and she 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.
Just think 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! If you’re one of the tens of millions of Americans facing certain destitution, earning less than subsistence wages stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart or serving up McDonald cheeseburgers, prepare to scream and then come to realize that the benefit package for these servants of Miz Michelle are the same as members of the national security and defense departments and the bill for these assorted lackeys is paid by John Q. Public:
1. $172,200 -Sher, Susan (Chief Of Staff)
2. $140,000 -Frye, Jocelyn (Deputy Assist to the President & Director of Policy and Projects for the First Lady)
3. $113,000 -Rogers, Desiree (Special Assist to the President & White House Social Secretary)
4. $102,000 -Johnston, Camille (Special Assist to the President & Director of Communications for the First Lady)
5. $100,000 -Winter, Melissa (Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
6. $90,000 - Medina, David. (Deputy Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
7. $84,000 - Lelyveld, Catherine (Director and Press Secretary to the First Lady)
8. $75,000 - Starkey, Frances (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the First Lady)
9. $70,000 - Sanders, Trooper (Deputy Director of Policy and Projects for the First Lady)
10. $65,000 - Burnough, Erinn (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
11. $63,000 - Reinstein, Joseph B. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
12. $62,000 - Goodman, Jennifer R. (Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events Coordinator For The First Lady)
13. $60,000 - Fitts, Alan O. (Deputy Director of Advance and Trip Director for the First Lady)
14. $55,500 - Lewis, Dana (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the First Lady)
15. $52,500 - Mustaphi, Semonti (Associate Director and Deputy Press Secretary To The First Lady)
16. $50,000 - Jarvis, Kristen (Special Assistant for Scheduling and Traveling Aide To The First Lady)
17. $45,000 - Lechtenberg, Tyler (Associate Director of Correspondence For The First Lady)
18. $42,500 - Tubman, Samantha (Deputy Associate Director, Social Office)
19. $40,000 - Boswell, Joseph J. (Executive Assistant to the Chief Of Staff to the First Lady)
20. $36,000 - Armbruster, Sally M. (Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary)
21. $36,000 - Bookey, Natalie (Staff Assistant)
22. $36,000 - Jackson, Deilia A. (Deputy Associate Director of Correspondence for the First Lady)
Copyright 2009 Canada Free Press.Com canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/12652
There has never been anyone in the White House at any time that has created such an army of staffers whose sole duties are the facilitation of the First Lady’s social life. One wonders why she needs so much help, at taxpayer expense, when even Hillary, only had three; Jackie Kennedy one; Laura Bush one; and prior to Mamie Eisenhower social help came from the President’s own pocket.
Note: This does not include makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and “First Hairstylist” Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom traveled aboard Air Force One to Europe.
Does this include Secret Service Salaries?
But as you have said, the problem is what's inside her. She's not only a radical Marxist and a racist, but she's downright mean. She's ugly on the inside.
And she has no idea how to be First Lady because she has no idea how to be a gracious, or even decent person.
But I gotta disagree with you on one thing, IrishCatholic - she dresses like a clown, and looks horrid in mostly everything except her suits. I agree that someone needs to be fired. She's an international embarrassment.
ROFL
If I were still single, and Michelle was laying naked on a bed at a party giving it away for free I wouldn't touch that wookie.
You obviously didn't.
I said that Michelle was "not unattractive." That was to counter the posts calling her ugly. She is not. Neither is she attractive. She's ordinary looking, and for me, that's just fine.
However, she has been worshipped by the media as a beautiful woman, and she is not even close, and that is not fine.
Therefore, both extremes, IMO, are wrong.
I do not think that any First Lady should be judged on the basis of natural beauty. I do not think any individual should be judged on the basis of appearance. In that, I am counter-culture.
Obama is an ordinary looking man and Michelle is an ordinary looking woman. Neither is attractive or unattractive. But both of them have dark souls. As long as we make fun of their looks, we risk overlooking the real problem of who these people are.
Contempt.
This administration holds the voters in contempt.
$168,000 McBride, Anita B (Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady)
$108,000 Zantzinger, Amy S (Special Assistant to the President & White House Social Secretary)
$108,000 Harder, Cherie S (Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Director of Policy and Projects for the First Lady)
$90,000 Nemiec, Sally M (Press Secretary to the First Lady)
$84,700 Miller, Sonja Maria (Deputy Chief of Staff to the First Lady)
$75,000 Ballard, Deanna M (Director of Scheduling for the First Lady)
$65,000 Underwood, Carrie P (Deputy Director of Policy & Projects for the First Lady)
$65,000 Wallace, Charity N (Director of Advance for the.First Lady)
$59,700 Marshall, Misty C (Director of Correspondence for the First Lady)
$50,000 Etter, Marisa Leigh (Deputy Director of Scheduling for the First Lady)
$50,000 Thornton, Dorothy M (Deputy Social Secretary)
$50,000 King, Kristin N (Deputy Director of Advance for the First Lady)
$47,500 Lineweaver, Lindsey M (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the First Lady)
$46,200 Rawson, Kimberly D (Executive Assistant to the Chief of Staff to the First Lady)
$43,000 Donoghue, Tarah C (Deputy Press Secretary to the First Lady)
$42,500 Vogel, Campbell B (Deputy Director of Correspondence for the First Lady)
$39,000 Block, Jonathan F (Assistant Press Secretary to the First Lady)
That does not seem right, not at all. I can't believe that Laura would have had that large of a staff.
I don't be begrudge some staff support for the First Lady, as there is a civic function to the position even if there is no govermental role. I'm sure there are hundreds of grade school classes that write to the First Lady each year and expectt a response. I'm sure there are dozens of visitors to the White House each day that expect a thank you note. I'm sure that she has enough appointments and calls she needs someone to answer her phone and someone to keep her calendar. She probably needs a researcher to tell her that Prime Minister of Slovenia's wife loves dogs but hates cats.
The question is what is enough? Growing from a payroll of $1.28M to a payroll of $1.495M is a 17% increase at a time when a lot of Americans are hurting. This is just a tiny microcosm of our current approach to governement. The scale, complexity and grandiosity of each department of our government only increases, usually at rates much faster than the economy that sustains it.
At some point, we're going to have to say enough and start shrinking the size of government offices instead of growing them. Maybe elementary school classes get a polite form letter instead of a customized respone written by a staffer. Maybe visitors to the White House get only a thank you card instead of a signed 8x10 photo of the first couple. Maybe one staffer can handle both the telephone and the calendar. Maybe someone from the State department briefs her on any special situations with foreign dignitaries instead of having her own researcher.
It's not going to happen with the current occupants of the White House, but sometime soon we need leaders who are frugal instead of grandiose.
Is there a site that lists the payroll, etc for the White House, including czars, etc?
Is there a site that lists the payroll, etc for the White House, including czars, etc?
Sorry, your post makes no sense.
The Joker was an anarchist, far from socialist.
As someone who feverishly opposes Obama’s brazen attempts to have the government take over all of our industries, I want to make sure that the message we send to those we are trying to convince is correct.
They are almost all her friends. It's a who's-who of cronies that helped Michelle get her $300,000 positions for doing nothing---and now it's payback time for them.
And guess what, all 22 of her staff have FREE HEALTHCARE!! Change you can't believe in!
Most of the pictures you see, that the WH releases are airbrushed and photoshopped. They can do anything, take 20 pounds off, make legs smaller, more defined. It’s the others that show the real MO. She is enormous.
Started right, moved to the center, now home again ".....I want to make sure that the message we send |
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I agree with you. I’d take a different angle altogether: why the hell do First Ladies have these kind of staffs in the first place? I’m not picking on first ladies; this business of having incredibly large staffs is rife throughout government.
I have another point to make: I’ve done a quick study of the list of her staff and it appears to me to be about 50% african american. Looks to me like she is racially biased and not at all sufficiently diverse.
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