Did Obama take a promised pay cut? White House won’t say

Did Obama take a promised pay cut? White House won’t say

The White House will neither admit nor deny whether President Obama lived up to a promise he’d made more than a year ago to take a five percent pay cut. He made that pledge to show his solidarity with federal workers who may have been financially impacted by sequestration.

On May 3 of last year, the president promised to make the cut retroactive beginning March 1, the date sequestration began, a White House official told The New York Times.

“The president has decided that to share in the sacrifice being made by public servants across the federal government that are affected by the sequester, he will contribute a portion of his salary back to the Treasury,” the official said.

However, the president’s tax records indicate that he’s still receiving the same salary. The Washington Free Beacon reported:

According to his tax returns, Obama is still receiving the presidential salary of $400,000 per year. Last year, he earned $394,796 in wages from the Defense Financing and Accounting Service (DFAS-CIVPAY), which handles the salaries for civilian members of the Defense Department.

Obama’s income was commensurate to his salaries in recent years. He took in $395,188 in 2010, $394,821 in 2011, and $394,840 in 2012. The salary is also comparable to what former President George W. Bush received in 2007, when he earned $397,839.

The president’s salary is set by the U.S. code, and cannot be legally changed in the middle of a presidential term. However, at the time of Obama’s promise, the White House official said Obama would “write a check to the government” each month, according to the New York Times, beginning last April.

The Free Beacon reported that the White House press office failed to respond “to numerous requests” as to whether he fulfilled his promise to return the roughly $20,000 to the Treasury Department. When contacted by phone, the spokesman simply said, “I don’t have that information.”

I’ll take that as a no.

Michael Dorstewitz

Michael Dorstewitz

Michael Dorstewitz is a recovering Michigan trial lawyer and former research vessel deck officer. He has written extensively for BizPac Review.

Comments

For your convenience, you may leave commments below using Disqus. If Disqus is not appearing for you, please disable AdBlock to leave a comment.