Right now, Obama makes $400,000 a year as Commander-In-Chief, along with a $50,000 entertainment expense account. He and his family are required to pay for all their own food, toiletries, and dry cleaning.

Obama's net worth according to some estimations is around 7.5 Million dollars.

I like that Obama is a man of principles and really seems to mean what he says. I think it would be a great PR move to toss that money back to the goverment.

A meaningless drop in the bucket, but perhaps a symbolic gesture. Still, I don't recall you asking Bush to do the same thing when the economy tanked under his watch...

No but I did ask for Bush to be impeached.

It'd be cool if the entire Administration did so.

No, I don't think he should.

I never got this constant demand to pay politicians less or nothing.

If anything, they should be paid a high enough wage to attract highly skilled people who would otherwise work in private industry. Instead, we attract scammers who know they can do all sorts of under-the-table deals in exchange for making shady deals, exchanging bad legislation for payoffs.

There should be no doubt who politicians are working for and being paid by - - the citizens and taxpayers.

He should be given the entire $18B in bonuses those idiots got. $400k is ridiculously low for the amount of work he's doing.

It's not really about the money. Capping the bank CEO's salary really isn't about the money either. It's all symbolic.

It mighta been great symbolism in Russia in 1917 - - but in America?

It would be a bold symbolic gesture, but probably not necessary. I don't think anyone expects him to do his job for free.

He should have capped the bailout executives to also be $400k instead of $500k, so that they don't make more than the president.

A Congresswoman, I forget which one, is the one who made that proposal initially, saying that these guys who take the bailout shouldn't make more than the President. Obama went with it. Not sure why he made it $500K instead of $400K, but the point is still the same I suppose.

my only problem is that a few CEO's haven't been around for awhile. The Chrysler CEO has only been around for about a year if I remember right. So I don't think that seems right for him to be penalized as much. I do think the 8 mil salary is excessive though. Also with a 500k cap, if the company decides to boot the CEO, good luck finding someone to replace him.

All these caps are temporary I assume.

Anyways, no. Obama is not that rich. Paying for most of crap while hes president would empty their account

The CEOs are still entitled to stock options. They simply can't cash them in until the company pays back the govt the amount it received in the bailout. To the incoming CEO, turn your company around and pay back taxpayers, and you will handsomely rewarded. That seems fair.

The Chrysler CEO along with Ford and GM have all said that they would take a one dollar salary if they got a bailout.

And those guys were getting a LOAN, not an asset swap.

Like he and his family REALLY pay for food/entertainment themselves. What a bunch of bologna!

Yeah, I sure wouldn't take a job that only paid half a million. Where would they ever find someone who would accept such a low pay?

Would you take a job paying half a million when you could go out and get 8x as much doing something else?

The people you want for this job are precisely the kind of person who would take this over something higher paying because they want the challenge of turning a company around and work toward long-term growth.

For some people, it's not just about the money. They're out there. These companies just have to find them.

I just read an article that praised this move as promoting and rewarding long term growth of a company over short-term gains in the market the way many current CEOs do and which have led to many of the current economic problems at these companies.

Give that man his 400k.
As for the those companies which need help from staate the 500k thing is right.
As for those who fucked up their company and got 18b bonus.......well send them the FBI and get them some tickets to jail.

For companies getting full scale bailouts from the government, they deserve to have to deal with whatever crazy rules the lender dreams up. I have no problems with the salary cap.

Typically I would argue survival of the fittest, if the board is willing to pay inane amounts to someone, they must be doing it for the good of the company, if they aren't, there company will likely show the wear of the leadership and tank. However the financial system is different, it snowballs to other aspects of the economy, and because of that, the government was forced to step in. After that happened, the horrid leadership that got them into this mess continued to manifest in the form of bloated compensation and foolish spending. You're costing the taxpayers money, showing a complete moronic lack of intelligence and business prowess, you deserve to have your salary capped.

The problem with Obama's cap is it's simply not hard enough, not encompassing enough, and should have hit harder. But something is better than nothing. The key here is that NONE of this should apply to a business that isn't dipping into taxpayers money. You don't cap regular CEO's, regardless of how extravagant or moronic they prove to be. Let the board deal with them or the company tank.

As for Obama, a President deserves every penny he gets, and while he's well off, he's no billionaire. Let the guy keep his money.

i wouldn't accept a CEO position at 500K if it was one of the big 3 or a big time banking company