Presidents earn their pay

In response to the Feb. 14 letter from Geoff Swindler (“Earnings lid for Obama, too”), Mr. Swindler is inaccurately comparing the president’s compensation to the corporate executives whose companies receive bailout money. Though I did not vote for this president, all U.S. presidents’ compensation is reasonable and warranted. The burden, commitment, risk and responsibility all justify the yearly salary and anything thereafter received from their experience.

The difference is that the corporate bailouts came from irresponsible behavior, and a continuance of that without consequences (i.e., a cap on bonuses) would only create more of the same irresponsible behavior only now more directly upon my back as a taxpayer.

By the way, the cap is not on salaries but bonuses, which make up most of executives’ pay. Salaries could increase with no cap, but they would be taxed differently than bonuses. There’s the rub. The wake-up call that this cap brings has been a long time coming! And, it is only on those companies being propped up by our responsibly hard-earned money.

Babette Banducci

Coeur d’Alene