If you’ve ever entertained the thought that you’d be willing to pay Joe Biden more to stop wrecking America than you would to let him remain as president, I have good news for you: You will be!
Unless you’ve been living under a rock as of late, you’ve no doubt heard that on Sunday, Joe Biden finally gave up the ghost and announced he wouldn’t be seeking a second term as president.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” Biden wrote.
“And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term.”
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2024
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Ah, well, more’s the pity. And while former presidents generally enrich themselves on the speaking circuit or corporate boards, even Burisma probably wouldn’t pay for, well, this:
Needless to say, the drugs didn’t work. pic.twitter.com/3lYHnU476w
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) June 28, 2024
But for those of you who are worried Hunter Biden might have to abandon his career as a starving artist and start cold-calling Carlos Slim and that guy from CEFC the Chinese government made disappear again, fear not.
Because, as the National Taxpayers Union Foundation noted, Joe will actually be getting paid more now that he’s not your president than when he was nominally doing the duties of head of state.
In a news release two days before Biden announced what we all expected was a fait accompli — that is, that he wasn’t going to be seeking a second term — the organization said it had “calculated the total pension that President Joe Biden will receive whenever he leaves the White House in a new issue brief by Demian Brady, vice president of research for NTUF.
“Biden’s career in Congress, combined with his tenure as Vice President and President, means he will receive an annual pension of $413,000 of taxpayer dollars. His salary as president is $400,000.”
How we got there is a little complicated, so let’s do a bit of digging.
First, there’s Biden’s congressional pension. Established in 1946, the pension program is determined by someone’s tenure on Capitol Hill in any office other than the presidency, how old they are when they retire, and what their average salary was when they left Congress.
Biden entered Congress in 1973 as a senator from Delaware and didn’t leave until 2009, when he became vice president to Barack Obama. He served a further eight years there.
Moreover, it’s not just that he was in Congress so long that he’ll have a generous pension. It’s also when he was elected to Congress.
“Members elected before 1984 are eligible to participate in the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) which offers a generous 2.5 percent accrual rate,” the NTUF noted in a separate brief on the matter, authored by Brady.
“The starting pension amount is determined by multiplying the number of years in office by the average of the three highest years of salary, multiplied by 2.5 percent. The starting benefit cannot exceed 80 percent of the final salary. There is also a formula reserving a portion of the benefit for a spouse. After a former member begins collecting the pension, the annual amount can be increased through cost of living adjustments.”
You will be required to know all of this on the test.
While he received $230,700 as vice president, his final salary under the congressional pension program, the 80 percent cap on the starting pension means he could receive $166,374 from that program. There is a possibility that he switched to a different retirement program, which went into effect in 1987, that would slightly lower this to $164,401, although the difference is so negligible and the details arcane enough enough that we’ll just assume the former number.
Then there’s his presidential pension. Pursuant to the Former Presidents Act of 1958 — “a law enacted because of public concern about Harry Truman’s financial position upon leaving the White House five years earlier,” the NTUF noted — a former president is “provided an office allowance and a pension equal to the yearly salary of the head of an executive department of the federal government.”
“The Ethics Reform Act of 1989 provides that this salary level is adjusted each year based on the percent of change in the private sector wages and salaries portion of the Employment Cost Index, but minus 0.5 percent to incorporate modest reductions. The salary level is reported at the end of each calendar year by the Office of Personnel Management, and amounts to $246,400 in 2024.”
Despite the fact that Joe Biden’s net worth is estimated to be about $9 million — and that’s on the low end of former presidents receiving pensions — this means that with both, he’ll be getting $413,000 a year for the rest of his life. That’s right: There’s no prohibition against “double-dipping” and getting both a congressional and presidential pension!
“Joe Biden represents a unique situation,” Brady wrote in the brief.
“With his long tenure in Congress and subsequent years as Vice President and President, Joe Biden stands to benefit significantly from both systems, potentially receiving a combined payout starting at around $413,000. Lawmakers should re-examine this loophole that allows for double-dipping in two different yet generous pension programs.”
Should politicians only get pensions if they have positive approval at the end of their terms?
Yes: 87% (13 Votes)
No: 13% (2 Votes)
We’ve come a long way from the penurious Harry Truman, so here’s a better idea for reform: How about a pension based on your popularity leaving office as president? No positive approval rating, no money. Given the amount of wealth these men have accumulated, it’s not unfair to offer them performance-based benefits.
Of course, after the events of the past four years — and the last month in particular — that might end up with Joe Biden owing American taxpayers money. Alas, we’ll likely never see that measure of justice come to pass, but a man can dream. Instead, we’ll be paying Joe Biden more not to screw up America than we did for him to screw it up. Nice work, everyone.
