Another Administration Official Pleads Poverty

by Karen Schulman, Senior Policy Analyst
National Women's Law Center

Earlier this week, the deputy secretary of homeland security resigned, saying it was for financial reasons—he couldn’t manage on a salary of a “mere” $168,000 a year. He is the second or third administration official in just the past few months to step down because they needed to earn more money, even though they had salaries that put them in the top 2 percent of all earners in the country.  These claims of poverty would seem jarring enough on their own, but they are particularly hypocritical coming at the same time the administration is blocking efforts to help more low- and moderate-income families gain access to health insurance for their children.  The administration recently issued guidelines that effectively prevent states from increasing their income eligibility limits for the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) above 250 percent of poverty, or $42,925 for a family of three—about one-quarter of the income that the deputy secretary says is too low to stay in his job.  Yet the administration seems to believe that these families are earning more than enough to afford health insurance on their own.  The administration is also promising to veto a bill approved by Congress, with significant bipartisan support, to increase funding for SCHIP.

Maybe the departing deputy secretary can’t make it on a salary of $168,000 a year because he is particularly bad at managing his personal budget—as bad as the administration has been in handling the U.S. budget.  But, if the administration is going to continue denying help to families making do on much, much less, administration officials planning to resign would be well-advised to use the reliable old standard,  “I want to spend more time with my family,” rather than the new and unimproved, “I want to spend more money.”