If you’ve ever thought about paying Joe Biden more to stop damaging America than to keep him as president, We have good news for you: You might get that chance!
On Sunday, Joe Biden announced that he will not seek 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,” he included.
For those concerned that Hunter Biden may need to abandon his art career and resort to contacting Carlos Slim and the former CEFC executive who vanished, rest assured that this is not the case.
According to the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, Joe Biden will actually earn more now that he is no longer serving as president than he did while holding the office.
Two days before Biden’s anticipated announcement that he would not seek a second term, the National Taxpayers Union Foundation released a statement.
The organization shared a new issue brief by Demian Brady, vice president of research for NTUF, which calculated the total pension President Joe Biden will receive upon leaving the White House.
“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.”
First, there’s Biden’s congressional pension. Established in 1946, this pension program is based on a person’s tenure on Capitol Hill (excluding the presidency), their age at retirement, and their average salary upon leaving Congress.
Biden began his congressional career in 1973 as a senator from Delaware, serving until 2009 when he became vice president under Barack Obama, a position he held for an additional eight years.
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.”
As vice president, Biden earned $230,700. Under the congressional pension program, with an 80 percent cap on the starting pension, he could receive $166,374.
He may have opted for a different retirement program that started in 1987, which would slightly reduce this amount to $164,401. However, given the negligible difference and the complexity of the details, we’ll assume the higher figure.
Then there’s his presidential pension. According 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 Joe Biden’s estimated net worth of about $9 million—on the lower end compared to other former presidents receiving pensions—he will still receive $413,000 annually for the rest of his life. This is because there is no prohibition against “double-dipping,” allowing him to collect both a congressional and a 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.”
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