If you’re wondering where your tax dollars are going, here’s a number that might make your coffee go cold: $417,000 a year. That’s the estimated pension former President Joe Biden is poised to collect—the largest retirement payout ever funded by U.S. taxpayers, according to a new report from the National Taxpayer Union Foundation.
And no, this isn’t some right-wing fever dream. Even the numbers guys are raising eyebrows.
“It’s pretty unusual, historically unusual, to have such a large pension amount,” said National Taxpayer Union Foundation Vice President Demian Brady. “I would have to say that it’s the largest.”
Let that sink in. Bigger than any former president before him. Bigger than the system was ever designed to handle.
To put the figure in perspective, the payout is “double what Biden’s former boss, Barack Obama, has received in retirement pay after leaving the White House and $17,000 more than Biden’s $400,000-per-year presidential salary.”
So how does a career politician pull this off?
According to Brady, the secret sauce is a Washington-special “loophole”—one that lets Biden stack multiple government pensions earned over decades in office.
The New York Post laid it out plainly:
“Biden, who once described himself as ‘one of the poorest members’ of Congress, is able to collect the lucrative payouts by double-dipping in benefits established under the Former Presidents Act of 1958 as well as the Civil Service Retirement System for ex-senators. Annual pay in the CSRS pension plan is determined by a formula that takes into account Biden’s 44 years in the Senate and as vice president, as well as his three highest years of salary during that span.”
In other words, decades in Washington plus a system written by politicians for politicians equals jackpot.
There’s even more. Without a cap, the haul would be higher still.
“The former prez would have raked in more than $254,000 in annual benefits from CSRS if not for a cap limiting his annual payouts to 80% of his highest salary, which was $230,700 a year as vice president and president of the Senate.”
And that’s just one slice of the pie.
“Biden’s starting pension could be as much as $166,374, including an $18,186 set-aside in the program for the spousal portion of benefit,” Brady noted, explaining that this estimate assumes Biden opted for the maximum Senate pension available.
For everyday Americans tightening their belts, this is Washington in a nutshell: rules for thee, loopholes for me. While taxpayers wrestle with inflation, debt, and shrinking retirement accounts, the political class retires in comfort—on the public dime.
Call it historic if you like. Taxpayers might call it something else entirely.
