First rule of Obama transparency: If its a holiday its time for a White House document dump. Over the Independence Day weekend the administration released its 2011 annual report to Congress on White House staff salaries. While economic data for the rest of America remains bleak the financial outlook for Obama flacks looks rosier than the presidents complexion after his latest round of golf.
In total President Obamas 454 employees at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. will rake in $37 million. Thats up $4 million from the income of George W. Bushs staff in 2008 back when the unemployment rate was three points lower the federal government workforce was 12 percent smaller and the massive deficit was still measured in hundreds of billions not trillions. One in three of Obamas employees makes more than $100000 a year.
Of particular interest to me are the high-paid Obama aides assigned to the apparently vital task of engagement -- that is politicking pandering and partisan cajoling -- on the taxpayers dime.
I found at least 17 staffers listed in the report with titles referencing the Office of Public Engagement (OPE) or online engagement (otherwise known as liberal blog hand-holding and crisis management). These engagers are among the top earners in the White House. Fourteen of the 17 earn $50000 or more. Chicago crony Valerie Jarrett the White House senior adviser who oversees OPE receives a salary of $172200 a year. Michael Strautmanis deputy assistant to the president and counselor to the senior adviser for strategic engagement earns $150000. Nathanael Tamarin a special assistant to the president for public engagement makes $96900 a year.
The director of OPE Jon Carson pulls in $153000 annually. Carsons deputy Brian Bond boasts a $93840 yearly salary. OPE deputy directors Greg Nelson and Anne Filipic earn $92000.
What exactly are all these minions paid to do? OPE describes itself as allow(ing) the views of the ordinary American citizen to be more readily heard within the administration and coordinating events that bring members of the administration in contact with members of the public.
In reality its another publicly subsidized Obama spin operation by a different name.
The murky office of public engagement was refashioned by Jarrett from the former Office of Public Liaison to do things like push the costly failed 2016 Olympics bid by her old friend and employer former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.
Its also the office that was entangled in the rabidly partisan effort to push the progressive agenda through the taxpayer-supported National Endowment of the Arts. As Ive noted before conservative film producer and BigHollywood.com contributor Patrick Courrielche first blew the whistle in 2009 when the NEA and OPE gathered 75 artists musicians writers and poets on a conference call to exhort them to create propaganda art supporting Obamas domestic policy agenda. The engagement operatives plied counter-narratives to the arts community to combat GOP health care critics and anti-illegal alien amnesty activists.
Actor Kalpen Modi an associate director of public engagement has been dispatched to various youth roundtables and Soros confabs on Obamas behalf.
More recently the well-compensated engagers have been busy organizing town hall cheerleading sections for Obama across the country and online to bolster his base galvanize community leaders and appease the commander in chiefs left flank. On Wednesday in an effort to double down on their online engagement efforts as an administration aide told The New York Times Obama will participate in a Twitter Town Hall.
As always however this administrations problem is that it hears but doesnt listen. It makes lavishly funded gestures toward engagement while remaining divorced from economic and political reality. The core failure of Team Obama is not a failure to communicate but a failure to comprehend.
Michelle Malkin is syndicated by Creators.
First rule of Obama transparency: If its a holiday its time for a White House document dump. Over the Independence Day weekend the administration released its 2011 annual report to Congress on White House staff salaries. While economic data for the rest of America remains bleak the financial outlook for Obama flacks looks rosier than the presidents complexion after his latest round of golf.
In total President Obamas 454 employees at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. will rake in $37 million. Thats up $4 million from the income of George W. Bushs staff in 2008 back when the unemployment rate was three points lower the federal government workforce was 12 percent smaller and the massive deficit was still measured in hundreds of billions not trillions. One in three of Obamas employees makes more than $100000 a year.
Of particular interest to me are the high-paid Obama aides assigned to the apparently vital task of engagement -- that is politicking pandering and partisan cajoling -- on the taxpayers dime.
I found at least 17 staffers listed in the report with titles referencing the Office of Public Engagement (OPE) or online engagement (otherwise known as liberal blog hand-holding and crisis management). These engagers are among the top earners in the White House. Fourteen of the 17 earn $50000 or more. Chicago crony Valerie Jarrett the White House senior adviser who oversees OPE receives a salary of $172200 a year. Michael Strautmanis deputy assistant to the president and counselor to the senior adviser for strategic engagement earns $150000. Nathanael Tamarin a special assistant to the president for public engagement makes $96900 a year.
The director of OPE Jon Carson pulls in $153000 annually. Carsons deputy Brian Bond boasts a $93840 yearly salary. OPE deputy directors Greg Nelson and Anne Filipic earn $92000.
What exactly are all these minions paid to do? OPE describes itself as allow(ing) the views of the ordinary American citizen to be more readily heard within the administration and coordinating events that bring members of the administration in contact with members of the public.
In reality its another publicly subsidized Obama spin operation by a different name.
The murky office of public engagement was refashioned by Jarrett from the former Office of Public Liaison to do things like push the costly failed 2016 Olympics bid by her old friend and employer former Chicago Mayor Richard Daley.
Its also the office that was entangled in the rabidly partisan effort to push the progressive agenda through the taxpayer-supported National Endowment of the Arts. As Ive noted before conservative film producer and BigHollywood.com contributor Patrick Courrielche first blew the whistle in 2009 when the NEA and OPE gathered 75 artists musicians writers and poets on a conference call to exhort them to create propaganda art supporting Obamas domestic policy agenda. The engagement operatives plied counter-narratives to the arts community to combat GOP health care critics and anti-illegal alien amnesty activists.
Actor Kalpen Modi an associate director of public engagement has been dispatched to various youth roundtables and Soros confabs on Obamas behalf.
More recently the well-compensated engagers have been busy organizing town hall cheerleading sections for Obama across the country and online to bolster his base galvanize community leaders and appease the commander in chiefs left flank. On Wednesday in an effort to double down on their online engagement efforts as an administration aide told The New York Times Obama will participate in a Twitter Town Hall.
As always however this administrations problem is that it hears but doesnt listen. It makes lavishly funded gestures toward engagement while remaining divorced from economic and political reality. The core failure of Team Obama is not a failure to communicate but a failure to comprehend.
Michelle Malkin is syndicated by Creators.
