Pay Freeze for White House Salaries Marks Obama's First Day in the Oval Office

On Obama's First Day in office, he took the steps to issue a pay freeze. The pay freeze will affect White House salaries and put a basic cap on how much the White House staff can be paid. The announcement came from President Barack Obama, who not only stated a pay freeze for all senior staffers making more than $100,000 a year, but also signed in an executive order. Under Obama's executive order, there will be stricter rules for his staff, as well as a ban on lobbying in the White House for people who leave the White House. Orders also include a ban on gifts.

The new requirement for anyone taking on a new government job will be an ethics briefing and a requirement to sign off on it. This is a big jump from the way things used to be run, and it seems Obama feels that this will be a great way to hold people more accountable for their actions while in office. In a statement that Obama gave to NBC, Obama said that this "represents a clean break from business as usual." Indeed it does, because now rather than his staff having high ranking positions with limitless power, there will be a balance and check as to what is considered above-board from now on.

These rules look to be just the first step that President Barack Obama plans to take in curtailing the back-room politics that many people have seen going on in Washington for years. Having so many policies out in the open, and by setting standards of sheer accountability up front, Obama is already leading his administration in a positive fashion. The willingness to lay down the law this early in his Presidency is likely to ruffle a few feathers along the way, but having government officials sign these ethics agreements is nothing more than holding then to the level of accountability that the public would want. The public wants officials that are honest and decent, and by making it so transparent up front, Obama is putting all the cards on the table very early on.

During the first days in his new oval office, President Obama has a lot of work in front of him, along with a public eye that wants results to happen rather quickly. Setting groundwork like he has been doing will help him when it comes to dealing firsthand with the faltering economy and the troubles that have been going on over-seas. The increased regulations on lobbying as well as gifts should send a good message to the American public, and by taking the stance that pay rates will be frozen, it is already showing that this is a brand new United States Government.

Source: Announcement of Pay Freeze