No More Snow In September

Chief Whitehouse Spokesman Tony Snow announced today that, as of September 14, 2007, he is stepping down. What is the reason?? A great scandal a la Senator Craig? Is he lamely following the rest of the Republican contingent? It must be the fact that the fellow has been battling cancer. No! Wrong, wrong, wrong! He is stepping down because he’s broke.

According to the New York Times, Snow and his family can no longer afford to live on his pitiful public sector salary. (I mean, let’s be honest, who can?) So—how much does this pauper and his family barely scrape by on? $168,000 per year. That's One Hundred Sixty Eight THOUSAND DOLLARS per year. For those of you out there who have a hard time fathoming that much money as a yearly salary, think about it like this—imagine a $1 bill (or one quarter). Now multiply that by 168,000. (or 672,000)

It’s gotta be tough, I know, and I’m sure that his neighbors here in DC can empathize—especially those neighbors who make up the 104,000 living in poverty.

The latest information provided by the United States Department of Health and Human Services lists the poverty line at $20,650 per year for a household of four. (This is if you live in the lower 48 states) I guess I didn’t realize that Snow is head of household for 46 people. Check it out for yourselves (and check my math!) here.

I could be wrong here. It could be that his out-of-pocket medical expenses have pushed him and his (46 member) family into poverty. This is a real concern for many Americans and, if it's the case with a guy who pockets $168,000 per year, we've got even bigger troubles than I originally thought...