But at a staff meeting to swear in top aides, Obama dropped a bombshell. He was freezing their salaries.

“During this period of economic emergency, families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington,” Obama told the assembled staff.

He thanked the staff for accepting the restriction and said, “It’s a mark of your commitment to public service.”

The president said the salaries of everyone on the White House staff that exceeded $100,000 would be frozen. If the Obama White House pay structure is similar to that of the Bush White House, more than 100 staffers will have six-figure salaries.

A recent review of White House salaries reveals that 253 (74%) staffers got raises, and some of these staffers were already making $100K or more.

Obama famously instituted a salary freeze for all White House staffers earning more than $100,000 on his first day in office because “during this period of economic emergency, families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington.”

But there wasn’t a lot of belt-tightening for the rest of the staff: We crunched the numbers and found that, of the 344 White House employees who were listed on the payroll in both White House’s 2009 and 2010 salary reports, 253—or 74%—got raises in 2010. And among that lucky overwhelming majority, the average raise was 9%. And plenty of people making more than $100,000 a year did get a raise as long as a title change came with it.

That’s a lot better than most people did! According to the compensation-tracking firm Hewitt Associates, base salaries for executives and salaried workers went up 2.4% over the same time period. And John Challenger, the CEO of the executive consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, says “nine percent is double what we’d see for most executives, and even more for the rank and file. In 2009, companies were in recession at least half the year. Raises were much more in the range of 2% to 3%, maybe 4% to 5% for executives.” And while Challenger says its not unusual for companies to reward 75% of staffers with annual raises, last year many firms skipped the practice. “Many more companies than normal cut raises altogether,” he says.

I don’t know about you, but the meager raise I got this year (the first raise in over four years) was less than 2%. One of the staffers (a speech writer) got a 66% raise. Another staffer (deputy press secretary), who was already making $113K per year, got a 33% raise. I guess Obama’s definition of “frozen” differs from the standard, English one which everyone else uses.

Look, I have no problem with people who work hard getting a raise. Hell, I work hard so that I will get a raise. However, if you are telling the American People that in order to show your commitment to public service you’re freezing staff salaries, why haven’t you done so? If you haven’t submitted a budget plan for the past two years, and the government is on the brink of shutting down due to lack of money, why are you giving out such extravagant raises? How can you lecture anyone about fiscal responsibility? How can you demand that taxes be raised on the American People?

It seems pretty obvious to me that there is a vacancy at the White House, specifically in the Oval Office. The sooner this vacancy is filled by the American People, the better for everyone.

Source: The Blaze

12 Weeks from Republican Governors Association on Vimeo.

This is a perfect time to once again let my family and friends know that I truly appreciate them, and do not take their friendship and generosity for granted. I honestly don’t know where I’d be without you guys, and I am very thankful that you are around.

President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it. On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end “tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans,” and he promised that households earning less than $250,000 won’t see their taxes increased by “one single dime.”

This is going to be some trick. Even the most basic inspection of the IRS income tax statistics shows that raising taxes on the salaries, dividends and capital gains of those making more than $250,000 can’t possibly raise enough revenue to fund Mr. Obama’s new spending ambitions.

The editorial goes on to analyze the tax receipts for the tax year 2006 and shows how ridiculous Obama’s plans are. Apparently, Obama plans to bankroll his spending spree by raising the tax rates on the top 2% of earners to nearly 42% from 35%. Now, given that small businesses are the largest employers in the country, and Obama is going to be picking the owners’ pockets for even more money, how is small business supposed to start hiring new employees and lead the economic recovery? The answer is: They can’t. In fact, depending on how large the tax increase on small businesses turns out to be, they may even start dismissing employees to be able to afford to stay in business.

So, as it turns out, Obama’s constant assertion that he can spend all of this money because he’s going to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2% is nothing more than a disguise for the old liberal class warfare scheme. He figures nobody will care if he raises their taxes because we’re all envious of the wealthy. However, when all is said and done, even if he does increase taxes on the wealthy, it won’t be enough to pay the bill he’s racking up.

Who’s he going to blame for that, George Bush?

Rene