Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
April 16, 2008
Pg. 13
In The Loop
By Al Kamen
Everyone's heard about the subprime mortgage crisis, with people losing their homes and the attendant credit squeeze and all. The administration and Congress have been falling all over themselves pushing plans to help lenders and homeowners in distress.
But little has been said of the plight of the poor renter. We're thinking here of one renter in particular, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who the Pentagon says is being gouged by none other than the federal government.
Gates, who took the job last year, lives in a somewhat down-at-the-heels but spacious 19th-century home on a secure Navy compound in Foggy Bottom. (That place where he fell down the stairs and injured his shoulder this winter.) He's the first defense secretary to live in military housing, according to Tom Philpott, formerly of Army Times, who now writes an online column at Military.com.
Current law requires that a civilian living in military housing be charged fair market value, which the Army Corps of Engineers estimated in this case at $6,500 a month. (We're advised by our real estate expert that $6,500 a month, depending on condition and size -- we've never been invited, so can't speak with authority to that -- is "quite reasonable given its stellar location.")
But that rent amounts to $78,082 a year, or 40 percent of the secretary's $191,300 salary. (We're not going to mention Gates's salary when he was Texas A&M president, plus all those boards and speaking engagements, which pushed his income comfortably over $1 million a year.)
Anyway, the Pentagon thinks this is unfair and notes that a neighbor -- the Joint Chiefs chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, simply forfeits his housing allowance in order to live in a home in the same compound, paying just $2,409 a month. The Pentagon thinks Gates and future defense secretaries should pay about the same, or $4,000 a month less.
Using the Navy compound, according to Pentagon calculations, is far more cost-effective than having the secretary live in a private home, given the cost of maintaining high security and the expense of installing communications equipment.
As it turns out, the proposed legislation is not intended to help Gates himself, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said yesterday, since his tenure is likely to be ending in a few months. The change is really intended for future secretaries, should they choose to use the house. Though a bit inconvenient for shopping, the location is an easy chauffeured drive to the Pentagon across the river.
The symbolism is also perfect, the brass might say, since the compound looks down on the State Department.
But isn't there an available cabin at Dick Cheney's sprawling compound on Massachusetts Avenue NW? A tent or something?
April 16, 2008
Pg. 13
In The Loop
By Al Kamen
Everyone's heard about the subprime mortgage crisis, with people losing their homes and the attendant credit squeeze and all. The administration and Congress have been falling all over themselves pushing plans to help lenders and homeowners in distress.
But little has been said of the plight of the poor renter. We're thinking here of one renter in particular, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, who the Pentagon says is being gouged by none other than the federal government.
Gates, who took the job last year, lives in a somewhat down-at-the-heels but spacious 19th-century home on a secure Navy compound in Foggy Bottom. (That place where he fell down the stairs and injured his shoulder this winter.) He's the first defense secretary to live in military housing, according to Tom Philpott, formerly of Army Times, who now writes an online column at Military.com.
Current law requires that a civilian living in military housing be charged fair market value, which the Army Corps of Engineers estimated in this case at $6,500 a month. (We're advised by our real estate expert that $6,500 a month, depending on condition and size -- we've never been invited, so can't speak with authority to that -- is "quite reasonable given its stellar location.")
But that rent amounts to $78,082 a year, or 40 percent of the secretary's $191,300 salary. (We're not going to mention Gates's salary when he was Texas A&M president, plus all those boards and speaking engagements, which pushed his income comfortably over $1 million a year.)
Anyway, the Pentagon thinks this is unfair and notes that a neighbor -- the Joint Chiefs chairman, Adm. Mike Mullen, simply forfeits his housing allowance in order to live in a home in the same compound, paying just $2,409 a month. The Pentagon thinks Gates and future defense secretaries should pay about the same, or $4,000 a month less.
Using the Navy compound, according to Pentagon calculations, is far more cost-effective than having the secretary live in a private home, given the cost of maintaining high security and the expense of installing communications equipment.
As it turns out, the proposed legislation is not intended to help Gates himself, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said yesterday, since his tenure is likely to be ending in a few months. The change is really intended for future secretaries, should they choose to use the house. Though a bit inconvenient for shopping, the location is an easy chauffeured drive to the Pentagon across the river.
The symbolism is also perfect, the brass might say, since the compound looks down on the State Department.
But isn't there an available cabin at Dick Cheney's sprawling compound on Massachusetts Avenue NW? A tent or something?