According to CBS, the Daily Caller found out that Ellie S. Schafer, who is the direct of the White House Visitors Office, gets paid a whopping $100,000 a year. Schafer’s pay has increased $30,000 since President Barack Obama moved into the White House four years ago as it was $70,000 when Obama first took office in Jan. of 2009.
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More specifically, the history of Schafer’s handsome pay increases look like this: from $70,000 in 2009, to $71,400 in 2010, to $80,000 in 2011, and to $100,000 in 2012. There is no 2013 report to Congress on White House staff salaries available yet. If recent history repeats itself, however, Schafer undoubtedly got another attractive raise this year.
Yet, the White House said last Tuesday that it can’t afford to give White House tours anymore due to the sequestration. Last Friday, it was announced that tours given through the White House have been cancelled due to the costs involved. Quite incredibly, it has been reported that volunteers often conduct the tours, though there is the cost of security during the tours. Now to find that the primary cost could be Schafer’s ever-increasing paycheck is of concern to many critics of the White House tours being cancelled.
The White House has been caught in several embarrassing moments since the sequestration began last Friday with their questionable - sometimes false - claims regarding the budget. For example, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney and others at the White House claimed this week that maintenance workers at the White House would be unable to pay their bills because the overtime will be cut from their work schedule. Truth be told, the average maintenance staffer made approximately $300 in overtime last year. Obviously, a loss of a few hundred dollars over a year is not going to send White House staffers scurrying for the local soup kitchens with their families in tow.
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