 |
| I get paid roughly the NFL minimum to lead the free world |
I'm sure most people have seen posts recently similar to this:
Total for president: $400,000.00
Salary of retired US Presidents = $180,000.
There are currently 4 U.S presidents still alive,
George Bush Jr. (2 terms)
Bill Clinton (2 terms)
George Bush Sr. (1 term)
Jimmy Carter (1 term) (barely)
I don't know about you, but this sounds like OK money. I don't really want ex-presidents, who should be held among the most distinguished in our society, living in high rise apartment buildings and bagging groceries to get benefits. Just because they are "retired", doesn't mean they don't do anything. Typically they lead lives that involve copious amounts of civic duty, give speeches, and generally try to promote "world peace".
Total for retired presidents: $720,000.00
Salary of House/Senate = $174,000.00
100 Senators (2 per state)
435 members of the House of Representatives (distributed to states based upon population)
Members of the Senate and House are appointed by each state to represent the citizens that have elected them. This includes voicing opinion, proposing/ supporting measures etc. in best interest of their constituents. If you want to cut the salary of people who are responsible for representing your state and interests fairly, be my guest. They are similar to a real estate agent of sorts, except that they don't make as much as top real estates.
Total for Senate AND House: $93,090,000.00
(535 members, representing 50 States/ 307+ million people)
Salary of Speaker of House = $223,500.00
This is a member of the House of representatives accounted for already, so he (John Boehner) gets paid for the additional responsibility, similar to a shift lead at McDonald's.
Total for Speaker of the house: $49,500.00 (additional)
Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders = $193,400.00
Majority/ Minority Leaders of the House: Eric Cantor/ Nancy Pelosi
Same deal as the Speaker of the House, these positions are compensated based on the increased responsibility. Generally, this is how jobs work in America.
Total for Majority/ Minority Leaders of the House/Senate: $185,600.00 (additional)
This brings our grand total to: $94,445,100.00
*Please note little to none fact checking was done for these salaries, simply taken straight across from the Facebook re-post in circulation.
Now I know what you are thinking. "OMG the President of the United States gets paid more than me? UNFAIR." Well, let's say you cut everyone of the aforementioned people's salaries in half. Forgot the part that if this was a business, and the CEO called up all the managers and said cut every one's pay in half, their would be strikes, walkouts, and would destroy the business. Forget that part.
That would equal a savings of ....$47.2 Million. For comparison, that would be equivalent to:
.0067% of the roughly $700 Billion dollars a year for defense spending. (Which is typically 10 times what the next highest NATO country spends on defense) Source: The Washington Post
Or, about 1/3 a modern Jet (F-22: $150 million, F-35 $156 Million)
Older Style jets, such as the Boeing Harrier II introduced in 1985, run a measly $35 million.
 |
| Enjoy your recession, PEW PEW PEW PEW |
From CNN, 4/13/11:
"By virtually every measure, U.S. military spending, which rose 2.8%, leaves every other nation in the dust. The $698 billion it spent accounted for 43% of all the military spending in the world and was six times the amount expended by the No. 2 country, China. Military spending amounted to 4.8% of U.S. gross domestic product, compared to the world average of 2.6%."
Conclusion
So obviously, I am suggesting we need to cool it on the defense/ military spending instead of trying to vilify the people we vote into office and compensate fairly to represent our interests. Maybe. I decided to use jets as just an example, $150 million/ a jet doesn't even begin to scrape the surface. Most of those programs cost $50 billion and up just to get off the ground. Have you seen the new laser ray gun the military is trying out? I'm guessing that isn't cheap. Insanely deadly and scary, but not cheap. But still pretty cool.
What's interesting to me is how the Vice President escape this repost trend? That's right, I'm coming after you Joe Biden! After all, according to Wikipedia he makes $230,000/ year. If anyone gets paid too much, it's that guy. He's basically an intern, just moping around the white house saying "You're right, Barack!" , "What do you think, Barack?" and "GO GET 'EM". We're going to pay a guy a quarter mil to sit around, praying that the president takes a bullet? I've been trying to keep personal attacks/ taking political sides in this article, but I got a biiig problem with Joe Biden. This guy is one heartbeat away from being the leader of the free world and this guy drinks non-alcoholic beer. Puhhhhhhhh.
I had to share this picture of another vice president:
Later, Alligators!!!
Sharing is Caring
NEW MOUTH'S CRADLE EP! Released 4/13 (aka yesterday). 5 tracks, using clips from http://www.everythingisterrible.com/, a video website of the weirdest videos on the web.
"Why is everyone obeying???" "Do the vegeboogie"
Download HERE
No comments:
Post a Comment