[lesuorac]

Well abuse is human nature.

But if they're making say ~2M/yr then there's very little reason to go lenient on a company so that they'll give you a retirement job there afterwards. It also means that if somebody wants to bribe you then the bribe has to be rather large as you're both risking that salary and you also certainly don't need that bribe. (Although I do also think the government should stop footing the bill for a lot of the stuff the congress critters do and if you want to spend 1/2 your presidency golfing that comes at your own expense).

The salaries of government people has filter down affects though as federal employees cannot make more than the vice president (~261,400).