Look Who's Talking - the Roaring Ellie

Over the years, I have found it curious that public servants earning two hundred thousand dollars per year (or less) could definitively command a net worth of several million dollars. I began chasing this information to satisfy my own curiosity. Salaries for public officials were increased by Trump while in office. Those change became effective in 2021. This table shows salaries before and after:

2021	President	400000
2000	President	200000

2021	Vice President	235100
2000	Vice President	181400

2021	Cabinet Secretaries	221400
2000	Cabinet Secretaries	199700

2021	Speaker of the House	223500
2000	Speaker of the House	181400

2021	House and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders	193400
2000	House and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders	156900

Notice – in 2020 and prior, the difference between President of the United States and Cabinet Secretaries salaries amounted to a mere $300!

Politicians are the face of the party – but not the speech writers. Most of their words are by exceptionally talented, hand-picked writers whose sole purpose is to deliver a clear and concise message via the speaker they are writing for.

Barack Obama, one of the more polished speakers we have had in politics in this country (in my opinion), spoke the words provided him by his writer, Jon Favreau. Favreau began his career in politics working for John Kerry’s campaign bid in 2004. He met Obama while working for Kerry when Obama was an Illinois State Senator.

Obama was not so much interested in Favreau’s resume’ and instead asked what motivated him to work in politics and his theory of writing. He described this theory to Obama as, “A speech can broaden the circle of people who care about this stuff. How do you say to the average person that’s been hurting: ‘I hear you, I’m there?’ (Wikipedia, 2024)

In Obama’s own words, Favreau was his “mind reader”. (Wikipedia, 2024)

When President Obama assumed office in 2009, Favreau was appointed Assistant to the President and Director of Speechwriting. He became the second-youngest chief White House speechwriter on record, after James Fallows. His salary was $172,200 a year. (Wikipedia, 2024) Obama (according to the chart above) earned $200,000.

What I have discovered is that the “big” money comes after the time in office – any office – earning more money in one engagement than in a year as public official. Between Speaking Engagements, book deals and public appearances, the millions come easily. For purposes of this piece, I have focused on the Clintons (both also veteran public speakers). Bill served two terms as President and Hillary one term as Secretary of State. Carolyn Curiel served as a senior speechwriter for President Bill Clinton. (WTTW, 2024)

Although Hillary’s earnings lagged during her years in the Senate (2001-09) and President Obama’s cabinet (2009-13), she quickly made up for lost time after leaving public office. She earned $9 million in speaking fees in both 2013 and 2014.

In 2007, the last time Hillary was gearing up for a presidential race, she earned only $123,000 as an author and nothing as a speaker. But in 2015, she made $1 million from speaking and $3 million from writing. Her book Hard Choices was released in June 2014, perfect timing for the election season. Its publisher, Simon & Schuster, paid her $12 million from 2013 to 2015. (Forbes, 2024)

Hillary Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, combined to earn more than $153 million in paid speeches from 2001 until Hillary Clinton launched her presidential campaign last spring, a CNN analysis shows.

In total, the two gave 729 speeches from February 2001 until May, receiving an average payday of $210,795 for each address. The two also reported at least $7.7 million for at least 39 speeches to big banks, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, with Hillary Clinton, the Democratic 2016 front-runner, collecting at least $1.8 million for at least eight speeches to big banks. (CNN, 2024)

Just to quell your curiosity, their combined net worth as of 2024 exceeds $240 million dollars.

As for Barack and Michelle Obama, aides to the Obamas would not comment on how much they are charging for other private speaking engagements, but they defended the speaking schedule and pointed out that the president’s first public meeting was a conversation with college students in Chicago earlier this week. However, Obama collected $400,000 for a speech to a health-care conference sponsored by investment bank Cantor Fitzgerald, Fox Business reported this week. (Krissah Thompson, 2017)

If holding public office then entitles you to demand hundreds of thousands of dollars for each speaking engagement, perhaps Jon Favreau and/or Carolyn Curiel should be receiving offers for that kind of money. More to the point: Perhaps one of them should have been running for office.

References:

CNN, retrieved from the world wide web on August 4, 2024 from https://www.cnn.com/2016/02/05/politics/hillary-clinton-bill-clinton-paid-speeches/index.html

Forbes, retrieved from the world wide web on August 4, 2024 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2016/11/08/how-bill-house-hillary-clinton-made-240-million-how-much-earnings-rich-white/

The Washington Post, Krissah Thompson, April 27, 2017, retrieved from the world wide web on August 4, 2024 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/the-obamas-face-the-paid-speaking-circuit–and-all-the-questions-that-come-with-it/2017/04/27/a723c280-2b65-11e7-b605-33413c691853_story.html

Wikipedia, retrieved from the world wide web on August 4 2024 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Favreau_(speechwriter)#:~:text=Favreau%20was%20hired%20as%20Obama’s,his%20successful%20presidential%20election%20campaign.

WTTW, 2024, retrieved from the world wide web on August 4, 2024 from https://news.wttw.com/2019/10/14/powerful-writing-presidential-speechwriters-discuss-their-craft