The architect of President Barack Obama’s scandal-plagued home mortgage program is the highest-paid White House official, earning almost as much as Vice President Joe Biden, a new report reveals.
Senior National Economic Council adviser Seth Wheeler makes $225,000 a year; Biden is paid $230,700. Wheeler’s pay is 30 percent higher than the next-highest White House official due to his being subject to the higher Federal Reserve pay scale.
Wheeler, a former Morgan Stanley banker and Treasury official, was the brain behind Obama’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), a program criticized by the left and right for multiple failures in cleaning up America’s foreclosure crisis.
Six former Bank of America employees have filed a class action lawsuit alleging the bank gave them Target and Bed Bath & Beyond gift cards and $500 bonuses for placing 10 or more accounts in foreclosure, “including accounts in which the borrower fulfilled a HAMP Trial Period Plan.”
Julia Gordon of the progressive Center for American Progress conceded to Reuters that America’s housing system is broken.
“Our housing system is still in shambles,” said Gordon.
The White House’s 460-person payroll costs taxpayers $37.9 million a year.
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