Presidential Compensation – Constitution Article 2 §1.7

These days I’m studying Article 2 of the Constitution, which deals with the Executive branch of government. Article 2 §1.6 is about presidential succession, which was a happier topic than we’ve had for a while. This week I’m looking at Article 2 §1.7, a relatively harmless clause dealing with presidential compensation.

Article 2 §1.7

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them.

Emoluments

This is not the famous “Emoluments Clause” that’s been getting so much attention since we elected a President who owns multinational businesses and won’t release his tax records. That is Article 1 §9.8, and used to be more commonly referred to as the “Title of Nobility” clause. This clause, 2 §1.7, has to do with presidential income from within the U.S.

Compensation

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation,

Hey, President is too big a job for volunteers. I think it makes sense the president should be paid. In theory, this also makes the office available to people who can’t afford to take four years off work, but nowadays, we all know that you’ve got to be rich to run a real campaign.

These days, the president gets paid a salary of $400,000, along with a $50,000 expense account, a $100,000 nontaxable travel account, and $19,000 for entertainment. The salary seems pretty fair to me. Enough to recognize it’s a tough job but not CEO-inflated. The expense account – well it depends. Does he have to buy his own jet fuel with that? Oh wait, no, that must be from the travel account. Maybe it pays for security? Probably not. Still, the combined payments are roughly in the half million range, which seems alright for a civil servant who happens to be the leader of the free world. But don’t even get me started on that $20k entertainment account.

No Pay Raises

shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected

This makes sense, too. Obviously, if the president could give himself a raise, it would be too tempting to do so. Interestingly, the only test of this clause has to do with reducing the president’s salary. In 1869 the Attorney General determined that a tax on presidential income cannot take effect during the current president’s term.

In a rare example of cleverness, old 45 has figured out that he can significantly increase his income during his term not by increasing his presidential salary, but by changing tax laws to benefit his business interests.

Back to Emoluments

The president can effectively use his position to advantage his own businesses, but he can’t make money directly from the government, except presidential salary. So the president can’t be a paid consultant or lobbyist. Since the foreign emoluments clause forbids an officeholder from taking any gift, emolument, office, or title of any kind whatever from foreign governments, I would expect that the same would hold true in this case for U.S. government payments. That would mean the president could not own businesses with government contracts. But I haven’t found anything discussing that. And since I’m on a work deadline, I don’t have time today to dig deeper into the question.

Let me know in the comments if you have information on the application of this clause.