Disconnect? Obama Pities Gibbs for His 'Modest' $172,200 Gov't Salary

Maybe in Obamaland Robert Gibbs's $172,200 salary isn't that much. But the comments by President Obama yesterday thanking Robert Gibbs for sacrificing so much these last two years and making so little has many scratching their heads wondering if the president is disconnected from the people.

The president's comments came in a telephone interview with the New York Times on Wednesday after Gibbs announced he was resigning as Press Secretary:

“We’ve been on this ride together since I won my Senate primary in 2004,” Mr. Obama said. “He’s had a six-year stretch now where basically he’s been going 24/7 with relatively modest pay. I think it’s natural for someone like Robert to want to step back for a second to reflect, retool and that, as a consequence, brings about both challenges and opportunities for the White House.” [Emphasis added]

The comment has drawn fire from both sides of the aisle. The Atlantic's James Warren wonders if the president is suffering from "tone deafness." Gibbs, Warren points out, "earns $172,200 in a nation where the average family income hovers around $55,000, unemployment is high, record foreclosures persist and wages for most folks are at best stagnant." And by exiting the White House and entering the lucrative speaking circuit, Gibbs is joining a "world in which a one-hour appearance can bring more than many Americans earn in a year, with the elite in the roughly $50,000 to $75,000 range."

"[A] former Chicago community organizer might have edited himself just a bit better in suggesting that a loyal lieutenant is a portrait in financial sacrifice," Warren writes.

Even the Washington Post raised its eyebrows at the comment. In a lengthy column, writer Ed O'Keefe asked the obvious question: "Is a six-figure government salary really 'relatively modest'?"

The answer is no. And O'Keefe introduces some figures to support that claim:

Even by West Wing standards, Gibbs is highly paid: Junior White House staffers earn between $40,000 and $60,000, and Obama, conscious of austerity, froze West Wing salaries early in his administration.

Rank and file federal workers earned an average $67,691 in 2008 -- about $7,600 more than private sector employees, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics.

When pay and benefits are calculated together, feds earned an average $123,049 in 2009 -- topping non-government workers by at least $60,000, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

In an attempt to appease the unions, O'Keefe even offers statistics for a private sector job comparable to Gibbs's. Again, Gibbs is raking in the dough:

According to BLS, federal "public relations managers" (the position description closest to Gibbs's press secretary work) earned an average $132,410 in 2008 -- about 44,000 more than private-sector PR bosses. (In fairness, top-earning outliers working as spokespeople for Fortune 500 companies or major non-profits surely earn more than Gibbs.)

"High-level staffers like Gibbs will go on to earn very high pay in the private sector as lobbyists, so we shouldn't shed tears about their supposedly 'modest pay' in government," Cato Institute fellow Chris Edwards told O'Keefe.

"Poor" guy.