[TheRealVille]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sharing a bit of budget pain, President Barack Obama will return 5 percent of his salary each month to the Treasury in a show of solidarity with federal workers smarting from government-wide spending cuts.

Obama's decision grew out of a desire to share in the sacrifice that government employees are making, a White House official said Wednesday. Hundreds of thousands of workers could be forced to take unpaid leave — known as furloughs — if Congress does not reach an agreement soon to undo the cuts.

The president is demonstrating that he will be paying a price, too, as the White House warns of dire economic consequences from the $85 billion in cuts that started to hit federal programs last month after Congress failed to stop them. In the weeks since, the administration has faced repeated questions about how the White House itself will be affected. The cancellation of White House tours in particular has drawn mixed reactions.

A 5 percent cut from the president's salary of $400,000 per year amounts to $1,667 per month.

The move will be retroactive to March 1 — the day the cuts started to kick in — and will remain in effect for the rest of fiscal 2013, said the White House official, who was not authorized to discuss the decision publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The notice followed a similar move a day earlier by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who committed to taking a salary cut equal to 14 days' pay — the same level of cut that other Defense Department civilians are being forced to take. As many as 700,000 civilians will have to take one unpaid day off each week for up to 14 weeks in the coming months.

Sen. Mark Begich, an Alaska Democrat, said Wednesday that he, too, will return part of his income to the Treasury, although he did not specify how much of his $174,000 salary he would forgo. Begich said his office started furloughing staffers in mid-March and more than half of his staff will have their pay cut this year.

"This won't solve our spending problem on its own, but I hope it is a reminder to Alaskans that I am willing to make the tough cuts, wherever they may be, to get our spending under control," Begich said.

The White House, after declining for weeks to provide specifics for how the president's own staff had been affected, said Monday that 480 workers on the budget staff had been notified they may have to take days off without pay.

Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney, wouldn't say whether notices have gone out to Obama aides outside the Office of Management and Budget, including senior staff in the West Wing. But he said pay cuts remained a possibility for additional White House employees if a budget deal to undo the cuts isn't reached.

"Everybody at the White House and the broader (executive office) is dealing with the consequences — both, in many cases, in their own personal lives, but in how we work here at the White House," Carney said. He added that the White House also has been trying to cut costs by slowing down hiring, scaling back supply purchases, curtailing staff travel, reducing the use of air cards for mobile Internet access and reviewing contracts to look for savings.

Like lawmakers' pay, Obama's salary is set by law, so he must accept the funds and then write a check to the Treasury for the portion he plans to relinquish. Obama's decision, first reported by The New York Times, won't affect the other perquisites afforded the president, from a mansion staffed with servants to the limousines, helicopters and Boeing 747 jumbo jet at every U.S. president's beck and call.

The 5 percent that he will hand back mirrors the 5 percent cut that domestic agencies took when the reductions went into effect. The Pentagon's budget took an 8 percent hit. Every federal agency is grappling with spending cuts, which the White House has warned could affect everything from commercial airline flights to classrooms and meat inspections.

The cuts were written into a 2011 deficit-reduction measure as a trigger to force future action. The idea was that lawmakers, eager to avert the consequences of bluntly slashing $1 trillion over a decade, would have no choice but to come together to find smarter ways to reduce federal spending.

But the two parties were at odds over whether more tax revenues were needed as part of the solution, and an intense campaign by Obama and his Cabinet to illustrate how the cuts could affect critical programs failed to spur an agreement by the March 1 deadline. As the cuts started taking effect, lawmakers turned to other issues, including an increase in the national debt ceiling, and there are no signs that a deal to undo the cuts retroactively will come anytime soon.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2013-04-0...o-treasury

[Stardust]

It's $400K of wasted spend. He should give it all back!

[TheRealVille]

It's $400K of wasted spend. He should give it all back!

In your opinion. I think it's money well spent.

[RunItUpTheGut]

If were going by job performance than Obama would be in debt billions of dollars to the government.

[TheRealVille]

If were going by job performance than Obama would be in debt billions of dollars to the government.

I would give him a raise, but he wants to give back. He is bringing the country back from the brink.

[the other guy]

Barack Obama Net Worth
Random Celebrity Profile
How much is Barack Obama worth?
$11.8 Million
Barack Obama's Annual Salary
$400 Thousand
+1LikeTweet32


Barack Obama net worth: Barack Obama is a former Senator from Illinois and the 44th President of the United States who has an net worth of $11.8 million dollars. Barack Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate and is the first African American President of the United States. Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School. While at Harvard Law School, he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. During law school, Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago. After graduation Obama worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and from 1992 to 2004 he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. One of the events that brought him national attention was his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States in November 2008, and took office in January 2009.

Barack Obama Net Worth – How he earned it:

Barack Obama earned his net worth primarily from the sales of his books The Audacity of Hope and Dreams of my Father. Obama's net worth was $1.7 million in 2007. In 2008 he earned $4.2 million, in 2009 he earned $5.5 million, in 2010 he earned $1.6 million. The majority of that income is from book royalties.

He's not hurting just another evil 1%

[the other guy]

Michelle Obama Net Worth
Random Celebrity Profile
How much is Michelle Obama worth?
$11.8 Million

[the other guy]

Begich tops Murkowski, Young in estimated worth
Published: December 11, 2011*


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COMPARISON: Still, he ranks 174th among all the members of Congress.

By SEAN COCKERHAM — Anchorage Daily News

Sen. Mark Begich appears to be the most affluent among the Alaska congressional delegation, with a net worth estimated by the Center for Responsive Politics at $2.3 million.

But Begich is a pauper compared to many of his colleagues, ranking 174th out of the 535 members of Congress in estimated net worth. Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski ranked 205th on the list, with an estimate of $1.7 million.

Alaska Rep. Don Young's estimated net worth of $840,000 put him down at 279th among the members of Congress.

It's a tough crowd to compete in, with 47 percent of Congress figured to be millionaires. California Rep. Darrell Issa tops the list with a net worth pegged at $448.1 million. Seven others each have a net worth of more than $100 million.

Read more here: http://www.adn.com/2011/12/11/2213758/be...rylink=cpy

[TheRealThing]

Barack Obama Net Worth
Random Celebrity Profile
How much is Barack Obama worth?
$11.8 Million
Barack Obama's Annual Salary
$400 Thousand
+1LikeTweet32


Barack Obama net worth: Barack Obama is a former Senator from Illinois and the 44th President of the United States who has an net worth of $11.8 million dollars. Barack Obama served three terms in the Illinois Senate and is the first African American President of the United States. Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, and is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School. While at Harvard Law School, he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. During law school, Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago. After graduation Obama worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and from 1992 to 2004 he taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School. One of the events that brought him national attention was his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States in November 2008, and took office in January 2009.

Barack Obama Net Worth – How he earned it:

Barack Obama earned his net worth primarily from the sales of his books The Audacity of Hope and Dreams of my Father. Obama's net worth was $1.7 million in 2007. In 2008 he earned $4.2 million, in 2009 he earned $5.5 million, in 2010 he earned $1.6 million. The majority of that income is from book royalties.

He's not hurting just another evil 1%

:thatsfunn But, listening to Obama lay it on in the last election, one would have thought Romney was the devil, and he was just a poor college prof (honorary) turned president who doesn't have a clue what rich feels like, LOL. He'll impress me if he does what Romney did when he served as governor of Massachusetts. Leave office with a spotless reputation, completely devoid of scandal, (oops, too late) with a veritable bounty of surplus in the state coffers and work Pro Bono, in toto. That means he'd have to give back every last dime he's taken from the taxpayer in salary and figure out how to move the US back to a 10.5 trillion dollar deficit by 2016. Of course, we all know that won't happen, we'll be much closer to 23 trillion than 10.5. Which, according to some on here moving us from 10.5 trillion in 2008, to 23 trillion in 2016, is bringing the country back from the brink.

[Wildcatk23]

How much did the other president give back when he destroyed the economy.

[Hoot Gibson]

How much did the other president give back when he destroyed the economy.

You do realize that the unemployment rate is only 0.1 percent lower in Feb. than it was when Obama took office, don't you? Do you also realize that the only reason that the unemployment rate is not even higher is that the labor participation rate has plummeted as a record number of people with bogus injuries have joined the ranks of the "disabled?"

Obama has presided in the weakest recovery in U.S. history. The stimulus spending was a failure and he recently proposed another round of stimulus spending. Obama is clueless in so many areas I find it amazing that he still has so many worshippers. If we make it through the next four years without being nuked, I will be shocked.

[nky]

What a guy

[vundy33]

The Vice President declined to return any of his payday, lol. But he has always been one of the "poorest" in US government, so I don't mind at all. Many more things to get aggravated at VP Biden about, hahaha.

[vector]

You do realize that the unemployment rate is only 0.1 percent lower in Feb. than it was when Obama took office, don't you? Do you also realize that the only reason that the unemployment rate is not even higher is that the labor participation rate has plummeted as a record number of people with bogus injuries have joined the ranks of the "disabled?"

Obama has presided in the weakest recovery in U.S. history. The stimulus spending was a failure and he recently proposed another round of stimulus spending. Obama is clueless in so many areas I find it amazing that he still has so many worshippers. If we make it through the next four years without being nuked, I will be shocked.

it was also the worst recession in history JACK :biglmao:

[outdoorsman43]

What a sweet, loving gesture "in my opinion".