When President Obama talks about all the jobs his administration has created he's missing a good bet if he doesn't include the entourage his wife has amassed in the White House. Indeed, she may have created more jobs than he has.
According to Canada Free Press our first lady has employed an army of attendants, at your expense, far in excess of anything needed by any of her predecessors:
Michele Obama does not get paid to serve as the First Lady and she doesn't perform any official duties. But this hasn't deterred her from hiring an unprecedented number of staffers to cater to her every whim and to satisfy her every request in the midst of the Great Recession. Just think, Mary Lincoln was taken to task for purchasing china for the White House during the Civil War, and Mamie Eisenhower had to shell out the salary for her personal secretary.
How things have changed! If you're one of the tens of millions of Americans facing destitution, earning less than subsistence wages stocking the shelves at Wal-Mart or serving up McDonald cheeseburgers, you might want to keep in mind that the benefit package for these servants of Ms Obama are the same as members of the national security and defense departments and the bill for these assorted lackeys is paid by you:
- $172,000 - Sher, Susan (Chief of Staff)
- $140,000 - Frye, Jocelyn C. (Deputy Assistant to the President and Director or Policy and Projects for the First Lady)
- $113,000 - Rogers, Desiree G. (Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary)
- $102,000 - Johnston, Camille Y. (Special Assistant to the President and Director of Communications for the First Lady)
- Winter, Melissa E. (Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff to the First Lady)
- $90,000 - Medina, David S. (Deputy Chief of Staff to the First Lady)
- $84,000 - Lelyveld, Catherine M. (Director and Press Secretary to the First Lady)
- $75,000 - Starkey, Frances M. (Director of Scheduling and Advance for the First Lady)
- $70,000 - Sanders, Trooper (Deputy Director of Policy and Projects for the First Lady)
- $65,000 - Burnough, Erinn J. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary) Reinstein, Joseph B. (Deputy Director and Deputy Social Secretary)
- $62,000 - Goodman, Jennifer R. (Deputy Director of Scheduling and Events Coordinator for the First Lady)
- $60,000 - Fitts, Alan O. (Deputy Director of Advance and Trip Director for the First Lady)
- Lewis, Dana M. (Special Assistant and Personal Aide to the First Lady)
- $52,500 - Mustaphi, Semonti M. (Associate Director and Deputy Press Secretary to the First Lady)
- $50,000 - Jarvis, Kristen E. (Special assistant for Scheduling and Traveling Aide to the First Lady)
- $45,000 - Lechtenberg, Tyler A. (Associate Director of Correspondence for the First Lady)
- Tubman, Samantha (Deputy Associate Director, Social Office)
- $40,000 - Boswell, Joseph J. (Executive Asistant to the Chief of Staff to the First Lady)
- $36,000 - Armbruster, Sally M. (Staff Assistant to the Social Secretary)
- Bookey, Natalie (Staff Assistant)
- Jackson, Deilia A. (Deputy Associate Director of Correspondence for the First Lady)
The person who sent the link notes that this list doesn't include makeup artist Ingrid Grimes-Miles, 49, and "First Hairstylist" Johnny Wright, 31, both of whom traveled aboard Air Force One to Europe. He also asks why Ms Obama needs so much help, at taxpayer expense, when even Hillary, had only three employees, Jackie Kennedy one, Laura Bush one, and,prior to Mamie Eisenhower,social help was paid out of the President's own pocket.
Good question. Meanwhile, how are you making out with your mortgage payments this year?
RLC