Obama vows new 'era of openness', freezes pay of top staff: "President Barack Obama Wednesday vowed to forge a new era of government openness and froze the pay of top staff earning more than 100,000 dollars to show Americans their leaders could also tighten their belts amid economic crisis."
Boy, I sure hope those top staffers will be OK if they don't get any more raises! I mean, to be limited to your $100,000+ salary must be pretty painful! Millionaire Barack Obama shows he really knows how to tighten the belt, by freezing the salaries of his (millionaire) staffers, including Rahm Emanuel (estimated net worth of between $5,023,020 and $13,171,000 in 2007). Most progressive bloggers are praising the move, saying that it shows Obama empathizes with ordinary Americans' struggles. But he's not actually reducing anyone's salary, so I don't see how it's proof that the White House has a new commitment to "do more with less". Maybe it's along the lines of congressional spending, which when you hear about "slashing spending" really means "reducing the rate at which spending is increasing".
I think Obama's doing some good things here, especially if his commitment to "openness" holds. I'm all for restraining lobbyist influence, but color me skeptical that the tens of thousands of lobbyists in Washington are suddenly going to be unemployed.
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