Opinion: Ticket Replay: What’s in your wallet? Not likely as much as Obama’s staff is pulling down

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As the holidays unfold, The Ticket’s thoughts turn to a little undeserved time off. So we’re re-publishing some of our favorite or most-read items from 2009. This item originally appeared on July 2.

True to his coming-into-office promise, President Barack Obama has held his top staff salaries at the same level as his predecessor.

Which ain’t too shabby.

$172,200.

True, according to an initial analysis by The Hotline, Obama has more folks making that top salary (20) than George W. Bush did (18). The hours are long. And they could probably make more dough back in Illinois politics, if you know what we mean.

And D.C. house prices always get jacked when a new administration comes to town because there’s not a lot of time to negotiate. Although so many of Obama’s folks like Rahm Emanuel were already ensconced in local abodes.

But they get free parking for their foreign brand cars in downtown Washington. And access to the White House Mess.

Here are some of the newly-minted bigshots making the big bucks: David Axelrod, Robert Gibbs, Valerie Jarrett, Carol Browner, Larry Summers, James Jones, Susan Sher (Michelle’s chief of staff), Rahm Emanuel and Jon Favreau, the paper Hillary-groping speechwriter (photo here).

(The president, btw, gets free rent plus $400G’s plus $50G’s tax-free for expenses. Vice President Joe Biden gets $208,100, less than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s $223.5G’s, who BTW, is next in line to the presidency after JB.)

-- Andrew Malcolm

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