President Barack Obama will personally dodge the sequestration spending cut bullet set to be fired on Friday morning — his salary is exempt.

For the last couple of weeks the president has been telling the American public that life as we know it will come to a screeching halt if sequester is allowed to go through. Children will go hungry, seniors will be denied care and our borders will be unprotected.

However, according to a Congressional Research Service report released last month, many programs are exempt from sequestration and others are subject to special sequestration rules, CNSNews reports.

Page 19 of the report, titled “Budget Sequestration and Selected Program Exemptions and Special Rules” lists one notable exemption — “Compensation for the President.”

Also, contrary to Obama’s parade of horribles, a large number of other programs are exempt. CNSNews’s Penny Starr reports:

“Most exempt programs are mandatory, and include Social Security and Medicaid; refundable tax credits to individuals; and low-income programs such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Supplemental Security Income,” the report states.

“Some discretionary programs also are exempt, notably all programs administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs,” it said. “Also, subject to notification of Congress by the president, military personnel accounts may either be exempt or reduced by a lower percentage,” the report states. (The report states in a footnote that the White House notified Congress last year of President Obama’s intention to exempt military personnel accounts from sequestration.)

In case you’re wondering, the pensions of former presidents aren’t affected by sequestration either.

All in all, spending will continue to spiral upwards with sequestration — it just won’t climb as fast as the president would like.

Read more at CNSNews.com.

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