Michelle Obama: One Expensive First Lady

rudyc
wrote on July 2 2009 @ 02:14 pm: [report]

My field director from the campaign is one of her staffers, and he works his ass off every day. It’s not just planting zucchini in the White House vegetable garden, it’s keeping up with the tremendous amount of paperwork (letters, etc) and appearances that the first lady deals with. Every one of those positions are necessary for the job the first lady has adopted.

joyy
wrote on July 2 2009 @ 02:31 pm: [report]

I never would have guessed she had that many staffers, but I don’t really keep up with these things.  But really, those salaries don’t seem outrageous to me.  Especially for a DC cost of living, which isn’t exactly cheap as far as I know.  And I would be surprised if those folks regularly enjoyed not having to work unpaid (salaried) overtime.

avalari
wrote on July 2 2009 @ 02:36 pm: [report]

Whats the diff between an assistant and a “special” assistant (other than 24,000 a year)? Does the special assistant buy her deoderant for her or something? I don’t get it.

AlbanianBeauty
wrote on July 2 2009 @ 02:47 pm: [report]

yea, can I get a job there too???

retro chic
wrote on July 2 2009 @ 02:58 pm: [report]

That doesn’t seem off to me. The “office” of the First Lady itself is an unpaid position (that in itself bugs me)—and it IS a real position, make no mistake. That came along with the territory of spouse to Prez and has evolved (thank god).

But, it takes staffers to float that increasing boat, who, I think, shouldn’t be expected to work for subpar wages. In the scheme of that list, the Special Assistant is a personal assistant—she has young children, and her own personal calendar to run for the four of them (dang, I could use a PA, too.)

All those salaries represent ‘round the clock responsiveness and loss of personal time/privacy/privileges, so, I think it’s par. Now to get Michelle’s position salaried! I’ll sign the petition for that.

Shasta
wrote on July 2 2009 @ 03:17 pm: [report]

What’s out of the ordinary about this? The headline implied that she was spending lavishly on frivolous items or couture clothing.

These salaries are a pittance.  Susan Sher, Valerie Jarrett (who actually works for POTUS) and Desiree Rogers were high-level executives here in Chicago making at least three times the above salaries. Don’t imply that these women (and men) are simple politcal appointtees who lunched and shopped with Michelle.

@Justine this is a silly article intended simply to stir the pot.  It provides no comparison to previous first ladies and their staffs nor any context.

Don’t you be dissing Michelle, Barack, Grandma or the Girls. I live in Chicago and might have to show you the Chicago way.

Seriously. If she is abusing her position please speak up, but you’re going to have to provide some additional background.

writergirl
wrote on July 2 2009 @ 05:07 pm: [report]

Those salaries sound about right.  In 2004 Laura Bush’s Press Secretary was making $87,700. That is the only salary I could find.  So slightly more than Mrs. Obama’s current Press Secretary. 

But, as the First Ladies staff is on White House payroll and considered a government job, the salary may be something that is locked.  They start at $84K and get a percentage increase every year.  I don’t know if it works that way, but most government positions do work that way.

Equilibrium
wrote on November 10 2009 @ 03:32 pm: [report]

In opening I personally find this very disturbing. This woman is quite righteousley squandering a great deal of tax dollars for what is not even a political appointment and comes with no powers of office. Anything the First Lady does is and always should be volunteer work.

Do not in any way get off attacking me. We have a serious problem when people are actually letting over a million dollars a year get spent to pamper the president’s wife. Even worse a president that got a Nobel Prize and hasn’t done a thing to earn it. I worked for the Obama campaign and I did so for free and am not regretting it. No wonder I as a horribly disabled person cant get financial aid from the Social Security Administration, the president’s wife spends in a year what I could live off of and receive medical care with for a decade. This is no better than the affairs with Madoff and Enron. But sure if you think this woman needs 29 yes 29 assistants making all this money don’t ask why we have people starving on the streets and bums begging you for change. Why? Because the only change we the people are going to get under this administration is nickels and dimes if we are lucky.

So I guess that leaves us the the pretty-lies and the never ending gab about this woman’s wardrobe. Not the kind of things that can be over looked with multiple wars going on and almost everyone in this country is now no more than three degrees of separation from one or more of the fallen. There are real problems out there and the fact that the president is doing such a horrid job at anything but making good sound-bites that his wife is over-shadowing her husband The President is simply deplorable.

We thanks to this sort of nonsense and by nonsense i mean the fact that the fact that this woman needs somehow 29 highly paid people to help her do what will be opposed and met with hatred and ire simply is a testament to how anti-American we have gotten to where we can defend gross excesses and flat out embezzlement of tax dollars to afford nothing short of opulence for anyone in our government and then defend the thief has the founders rolling in their graves.

The facts enough are simply appalling and worse the fact that this will be defended. This is not an attack on a person, this is a needed slap in the face to the American People to stop allowing and worse defending the borderline criminal activity going on here. If she wants to hire 29 assistants she can pay for them herself and not take money that could be funding programs to help good hard working Americans. And if any of you wanna play a race card sorry folks I’m a Native American so no dice for you.