{"id":504,"date":"2009-01-31T02:05:29","date_gmt":"2009-01-31T10:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/?p=504"},"modified":"2009-01-31T22:53:34","modified_gmt":"2009-02-01T06:53:34","slug":"mccaskills-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/mccaskills-standard\/","title":{"rendered":"McCaskill’s standard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Senator McCaskill has proposed a ceiling<\/a> on the pay of anyone working at a company taking government money–i.e., the same as our highest paid public servant, the President.\u00a0 The cap of $400,000 per year would include salary, bonus and retirement contributions.\u00a0 As usual<\/a>, the Senator failed to think this through.<\/p>\n

First of all, the president will get a pension of $200,000 per year when he leaves office.\u00a0 Even assuming he’s a two-term guy, the value of that retirement, if we calculate that contribution according to proxy disclosure rules, is about $400,000 per year.\u00a0 So, out of the box, McCaskill is offering an apples-to-oranges standard.\u00a0 Salary, bonus, plus retirement contribution for the president is about $800,000 per year, and much more if he gets the boot after just four years (so much for pay-for-performance).<\/p>\n

On the other hand, this bill doesn’t appear to mention a limit on perks and other benefits, where an executive mimicking the president can easily begin to make up some ground.\u00a0 To begin with, there is the much-maligned corporate jet.\u00a0 The president has one<\/a>. Actually, he has two of them, and each is tricked out with far more comforts and gadgets than the most audacious jet available to the average GM<\/a> or Citibank<\/a> CEO.\u00a0 In addition, the CEO should be entitled to a fleet of helicopters<\/a>, as well.<\/p>\n

Then there’s a housing allowance.\u00a0 To get something equivalent to Obama’s crib, a mammoth, historic mansion with sprawling acreage<\/a> in the heart of a major city, would test the generosity of even the most spineless board of toadies.\u00a0 But let’s throw in, say, the top floor of the newly renovated Fairmont Plaza<\/a>.\u00a0 Plus unlimited use of their entire staff, dining, and ballroom spaces.\u00a0 If you’re an auto company CEO, I don’t think the entire city of Detroit<\/a> would offer an equivalent value, not that they would take it.<\/p>\n

And if you think the post-retirement benefits of office were extravigant for Jack Welch, they don’t compare to this guy’s<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senator McCaskill has proposed a ceiling on the pay of anyone working at a company taking government money–i.e., the same as our highest paid public servant, the President.\u00a0 The cap of $400,000 per year would include salary, bonus and retirement contributions.\u00a0 As usual, the Senator failed to think this through. First of all, the president […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-revealed-preference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":540,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504\/revisions\/540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/hodakvalue.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}