There are plenty of reasons to despise Dr. Anthony Fauci. Who can forget all his ridiculous edicts throughout the pandemic — from suggesting multiple masks to telling people to disinvite unvaxxed family members to holiday celebrations? Remember how he lied about the National Institutes of Health funding gain of function research on the very virus that Fauci has used to try to make all our lives miserable?
If you want to go even further back, we can talk about the awful puppy experiments that happened under the not-so-good doctor’s watch. And don’t forget about how he sowed panic about a heterosexual AIDS epidemic that never developed.
Should we talk about his hubris? My PJ Media colleague Stacey Lennox wrote exactly a month ago:
Fauci asserted that the attacks on him have an anti-science feel. “If they get up and criticize science, nobody is going to know what they are talking about,” Fauci said, implying that he thinks most Americans are relatively stupid. “But if they get up and really aim their bullets at Tony Fauci, people can recognize there’s a person there. There’s a face, there’s a voice.”
“They are really criticizing science,” he explained, “because I represent science.” Fauci’s assertion actually represents scientism. Science is a process engaged in by millions of clinicians and researchers worldwide. It is rarely settled and not embodied in a single bureaucrat.
There’s yet another reason to loathe the 81-year-old Fauci. He stands to rake in the biggest federal retirement package in history — if he even retires.
Forbes reports:
Our auditors at OpenTheBooks.com estimate Dr. Fauci’s annual retirement would exceed $350,000. Thereafter, his pension and benefits would continue to increase through annual cost-of-living adjustments. Fauci has 55 years of service as a federal employee.
For the second year in a row, Fauci was the most highly compensated federal employee and out earned the president, four star generals, and roughly 4.3 million of his colleagues. As director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Fauci earned $434,312 in 2020, the latest year available, up from $417,608 in 2019.
Take a few deep breaths to get your heart rate and blood pressure down after reading that.
The Office of Personnel Management tells federal employees, “The maximum benefit you can receive from CSRS is 80 percent of your high-3 average salary, plus credit for your sick leave. This limit generally affects only those who have more than 41 years 11 months of service when they retire.”
With a whopping 55 years of service, he’s more than eligible for that 80% threshold. Forbes figured Fauci’s pension payout based on his last three years’ salary to be $333,745 a year. That doesn’t count any potential raise he may have received going into this fiscal year.
But wait, there’s more:
Additionally, Dr. Fauci is likely eligible for an annuity, paid out by the federal government. After serving 10 years, federal employees are eligible for “2 percent of [their] high-3 average salary for each year.” Dr. Fauci has more than surpassed the 10-year-minimum work requirement, and if he retired last year he could have drawn down at least an extra $8,344 a year (($1,251,545/3) x 2% = $8,344). If he leaves at the end of this month, that figure is likely closer to $8,575 a year in annuity payments, assuming his salary did not go down in 2021.
Why does Fauci make so much money? According to the documents that Open the Books obtained, he received a 68% pay increase between 2004 and 2007 to compensate for “the level of responsibility… especially as it relates to his work on biodefense research activities.” And obviously, he has continued to receive raises through 2020 at least.
But Fauci doesn’t want to retire and rake those big bucks in just yet. He told ABC’s Jonathan Karl earlier this month, “There’s no way I’m going to walk away from this until we get this under control. I mean, that’s the purpose of what we do.”
Last month, he told reporters, “So, I’m going to keep doing that until this COVID-19 outbreak is in the rearview mirror, regardless of what anybody says about me, or wants to lie and create crazy fabrications because of political motivations.”
As the Forbes article concludes, “Few could credibly claim someone staying in federal service for approximately 55 years is ‘in it for the money,’ though Dr. Fauci’s salary as the highest in the government would not be a disincentive to his tenure.”
In other words, Fauci ain’t going away anytime soon. So those salary and retirement figures are likely to keep going up.
I bet your love for Tony Fauci hasn’t grown after reading this.
Source: PJ Media
