Ask Mike: How much does the president make?
Hey Guys,
Whether or not you voted for him, I think we can all agree that President Obama has a tough job. But how much does the commander in chief bring home in salary each year? It might not be as much as you think.
President Obama earns a salary of $400,000 per year, plus benefits. And the benefits are many. He’s got access to Air Force One and Marine One, the presidential helicopter. He can put up his feet at Camp David, the official presidential vacation spot. He gets a swanky Cadillac limousine and, when fancy out-of-town guests show up, the president can put them up at Blair House, the official state guest house.
But wait — there’s more! In addition to the salary, the president is entitled to $50,000 per year expense account, a $100,000 travel account, and a $19,000 entertainment budget. On the negative side, he has to wear a suit 365 days a year.
But the perks don’t stop when a president is no longer president. Retired presidents get a pension of $150,000 per year. As Yahoo! News points out, in the 2010-2011 fiscal year, the four living ex-presidents together were paid more than $3 million for expenses, all picked up by taxpayers. Bill Clinton’s rent ran about $579,000 while George W. Bush’s phone bill was about $80,000. Sheesh, hasn’t he heard of unlimited data?
Got a question you’d like answered? Leave a comment below.
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What could possibly cost The Bushman 80k on phone bills?
To say nothing of capaign expenses which ran 300 million this year. Interesting bit of trivia.
You’ve left out, I think, the speaking engagements of an ex president, and if you are clever like Al Gore you can pick up money by selling timely assets plus get peace prizes that you are unlikely to deserve.
I don’t shed tears for presidents. Seems to me they are well taken care of.
I was thinking with all the benefits, they should get Minimum Wage.
Oops!
The digits are distracting, but comparing to other famous businessmen, and not even the most famous ones one like Kim Dotcom ! it is not a big deal right?
Pres Obama would have been happy with the $200K tha Presidential salary was before Geo Bush upped it to $400K. He had n o regard for the value of money because he always had it.
The $400K per year is chump change compared to blabbermouth Rush Limbaugh’s $50,000,000 per year. Limbaugh signed an 8 year contract – that amounts to $400,000,000 ! At that rate, it would take a President 1,000 YEARS to equal Limbaugh’s 8 year deal !
I know that he is the president and all but dont you think it’s outrages!!!!
Are you SERIOUS?! I know a YOUTUBE guy who makes more than that!!
That is actually more than I thought our president was payed, almost two times more in fact. I understand being paid for your services, but once your term ends you should not continue to be paid for work you are no longer doing. I would like to add that $80,000 dollars a year, for telephone service, is ridiculous. That is equivalent to $6.667.00 per month. Exactly who is he calling and why on earth are we, the tax payers, responsible for paying for such unnecessary expenses?
enough to make you crap ur pants
Not to mention, he gets lifetime premium health insurance and he’s exempt from obamacare.
Can’t compare Limbaugh’s salary to the president’s. Limbaugh is not paid by taxpayers. His salary is generated by ad revenues and other businesses he’s involved in.
a lot its up in the millions
Too Dame much
400,000 a year so 400,000*8=6.4 Million
Almost all presidents since the end of the great depression have taken a pay cut, that includes all the benefits they get too, when assuming office
Wow that’s crazy man
Not to mention that that $400,000 isn’t touched during their presidency. In fact, they have to relinquish all their credit cards and other monies. They still have it, but it is set aside. All of the money the president spends during his presidency is the taxpayers money.
Most presidents make more money after their presidency on book deals and personal appearances. Not to mention they get Secret Service detail the rest of their lives.
It is a small amount of money they get paid from the actual government for the stress of the job. If you look at most presidents, you can watch them age before your eyes. Look at a picture when they were first elected. Then a picture when they are out of office. They look 20 years older.
Give me his pay and benefits and I’ll wear a suit every day and sleep in one every night
Do you mean Obama? I think he makes Trillions
I was the greatest president ever
All Presidents have had a nice salary and extended benefits. I do not think it is outrageous for Obama (as Prez) to have the same.
Rich gets more rich, while poor gets more poor. Communism FTW! Wait usa, nukes are commin ur way….
The difference is that business makes money, so salaried managers and CEO get proper proportions. If you run a multi-billion dollar company successfully you deserve 40 million a year given that you are responsible for employing thousands of people. The president’s salary, congress mens’ salaries, and other high end government employees are often paid by tax payer dollars. And for the amount that Obama has screwed up he should be paying us while he is in office to receive half of his pension. They are all overpaid clowns and very few of them actually have a true understanding of economics. People for get that their job is to help the economy and create laws not fix society (which always makes it worse). Freedom is earned!
I would like to be president now………please, please!
Being President is a tough job? Yeah right! It is easy as hell. No matter what you will always get paid for the rest of your life. So you are never worried about making a bad decision because you won’t be held accountable for them. You will still all the pay and perks after you are done. Man, I’d love to have that job. I mean seriously, you could make the worst decision ever and it does not affect your retirement at all. Man, trust me. It is a sweet gig.
He a legend he deserves every penny
So you’re saying that I’ll still make more than the president as a neurosurgeon? Great, thanks!
I know you’re all freaking out about $400,000 a year, but in all honesty that’s chump change in the grand scheme of things. To collect $400k from the 320 million people in the United States, each person would only have to pay $0.00125. Most people wouldn’t bend over to pick up a quarter, let alone 1/10 of a penny. $400k is well worth it to deal with all of us Americans who complain relentlessly about everything.
Not even one-tenth as much as he would if he worked as a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Average salary for a fortune 500 ceo is $12.9 million. White House salaries are actually quite low compared to the private sector. So, while there may be criticism, the critics should turn around an look at what we pay for gas – Exxon #1, Chevron #3, ConocoPhillips #4, General Motors #5, for these top ranking companies. And at the top ceo’s who work in the food, fuel, retail, investment, real estate, and entertainment industries.
He makes 1.7 million dollars a year
Yea, how dare these presidents make so much for running arguably the most powerful nation on earth. I mean seriously. That money needs to go towards people we idolize and think are much, MUCH more important than the president. Like, football players for example! We could give that $550 to a football player, and raise his salary from $1.9 million to $2.4 million. They play a game they love and have millions of fans, They obviously deserve the money more.
Honestly guys?
If you guys, for some reason, had to make a choice between Leonardo DiCaprio being killed, or a war veteran being killed, you would choose the veteran. You have no right to complain how much the President makes, which is hardly nothing compared to the people you idolize for pretending to be somebody they aren’t.
Also you guys complaining about the how the president is running the country, you are conveniently leaving out the fact that, we put him there. The most common reason people vote for somebody, is on name recognition. They vote them because they recognize their name, but know nothing about him or any other candidate. Maybe if the PEOPLE actually gave 2 cents about what their candidate stands for, they won’t have a need to complain about it.
I heard something about 200,0000 a year.
Well, thanks a lot. That was really interesting. The president is taken care of very nicely. Even his limousine has some blood for an emergency blood transfusion, and I would do anything to get my own helicopter.
US Presidents don’t directly make much money from their job while they are in the White House but the perks are huge and the real money comes later; George Bush Snr made far more money and retained a great deal of power and influence due to his Mid-East oil connections after he “retired”.
@Andrew, that’s assuming that we would choose DiCaprio over a veteran and all of us voted for Obama. Personally, I’m fine with the president making 400k for their term.. but agreeing with whoever said it earlier, after they’re out of office we shouldn’t be paying their retirement. Again with whoever said it before, most ex–presidents make money off of writing books post presidency. Tax-payers shouldn’t be paying for some politician to do nothing politically progressive.
I’ve always been outraged by how much federal politicians make, no matter what the party affiliation, especially when they don’t work but half the time. I say pay them minimum wage their first year, and a simple cost of living increase every year after that. In addition, they should be paid by the hour, not salaried. When the president is off on Cape Cod, he’s still getting paid, plus the vacation is paid for, but if I take a trip to the beach, I’m on my own dime.
I have to note out that this is probably not so correct. i calculated that an avarage high position politician gets 20x the salary of the avarage salary in New York…
Local Sicilian politicians make more than that!! Just heard it on the Italian news…
He makes $40,000-$50,000 a year, which not surprisingly is more than disney actors, singers, and NFL players make.
To those who look at this and think it’s ridiculous, professional athletes make way, way more than this. They don’t have nearly as much “work” to do either.
BTW, who gives them salary?
Do they pay tax?
Cash or cheque?
Are these digits rounded off or exact?
Why do I ask so many questions?
If they are given money for all the expenses, why do they need salary? After all, money is for expenses. And if they are given post retirement salary, they don’t even need savings!
And, in which bank do they keep all this money?
P.S. Does he buy a new coat daily, hourly or every second? or he uses the same coat for 365 (sometimes 366) days. Does he even sleep with that coat? Why black coat only and not any other colour?
you can charge things on your phone bill, basically like using a credit card, yet payed directly too the phone company. I’m sure he used it as a loophole when the benefit’s were written, they missed a couple things.
So, it’s not that much amount to earned for being a President, nice to know that.
I wonder how much all those benefits are worth? Although his paycheck is not that big the benefits seem to cost a lot. I wonder how they afford that and who is paying for that?
I believe he makes $100,000.00, but every living expense is paid for.
He is the leader of the most powerful country on the planet and is probably the most important and most powerful person on the planet, He’s like the leader of the planet earth. He’s the top dog, the top Alpha male on the planet. When I think of it that way, I think he should make more than that, significantly more!!
Well it sounds like a lot of money to us average schmucks but keep in mind that people qualified enough to run for president could make exponentially more money in the private sector. No one ever became president for the pay.
Hey, the man works hard. At least he doesn’t earn a (fantastic) living by doing absolutely nothing…. *cough* Kardashians
Does obama have 365 suits
the president dosnt make much he only makes about the same as a trained nurse
I think we can all agree this is common knowledge and not needed to be “asked” unless your just generating activity
Probably about 40,000–70,000 a year
ok
Yeah, he “only makes 400K.” How about I pay you a salary of 20K, but I let you live in a mansion for free where you are waited on hand and foot. You don’t have to pay for transportation EVER, you don’t have to pay for security EVER, you don’t have to pay for food, you don’t have to pay for utilities, etc. Seriously, how much money does the President NEED when all the things we have to spend money on every month are simply provided for him automatically? He makes a LOT more in bennies than he does in salary.
I beg to differ on Obama being Commander and Chief. Art 2 sec 2 of the US Constitution state: “The President shall be Commander and Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the serveral states, when called into actual service of the United States;”
Now how is the military called into actual service of the United States you ask? Well Art 1 Sec 8 line 11 of the US Constitution gives us the answer. Congress shall have the power to declare War.
No Declaration of War by Congress the President does not assume the title of Commander and Cheif. This is a part of the checks and ballances between the Legistative branch and Executive branch. The President cannot just wage war on his own. Now is he Commander and Cheif, no the attack on Libya was never authorized by Congress thus was illegal and Unconstitutional. Once the President commits a crime he is no longer fit to hold office. Impeach Obama Now
my taxes, my precious hard earned taxes goes to a fucking 80k$ phone bill????? This is just wrong!!
The president should not get much of a salary at all. Neither should congressmen and women or senators. They are public servants, not employees. You serve because you believe in the cause and want to donate your time to make this country great. The more they get paid, the more their offices attract corrupt people.
To the moderator, can you remove the post from “123.” I am sure the word he used is not permitted here.
I learned this when I was in high school. Nothing shocking here.
Still more than I make, with added benefits that i will never have lolol
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