Anybody want to bet that not a single GOP member of Congress agrees to do the same?

And I'll double-down by also betting that at least one Republican publicly criticizes the President's action as a political play intended to make them "look bad".

Easy money, easy money...

Things only look "lame and Carter-ish" to people who weren't around for President Carter - or were one of the idiots who voted for President Alzheimers's.

If you want lame, Google Gerald Ford and WIN buttons.

It's called "feeding the trolls", and it never works. But it's a nice gesture, anyway.

I like this point made on Twitter:

"Today's study in party contrasts: RNC chair accuses Dems of supporting infanticide; POTUS gives up 5% of his salary.”

-Bearded Stoner‏
@beardedstoner

It just makes me think how most of our law makers are independently wealthy and don't need their salaries anyway.

In 2011, Obama made about $800,000, $400K in salary, and $400K in other income. Giving $16K back is a nice gesture.

@4
I think it's a statement of solidarity. He's a generous person. I recall there was a story of a European woman at an airport getting charged an extra baggage fee and not having enough to pay it. Obama, then a student, was in line behind her and paid it for her. (She sent him repayment when she got home.) It's not something a lot of us would do--we're talking more than two or three dollars, after all.

If Romney had the chance, he'd take that $16K that Obama gave up.

@6 I think you mean $20,000.

@6 Sorry, I didn't read the story. $16,666 it is. Would have thought he meant 5% of his annual salary of $400,000.

Oh goody, more money to help subsidize his pals at Monsanto...

@7 - Seriously, that has got to be an urban rumor or something. I don't recall baggage fees in the '80's (when the POTUS was a student). Heck, you a free hot meal back then.

@12

No, I think there have been extra baggage fees for a long time--once you reached the limit.

Here are a couple of sources.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/05…

http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/baracko…

Yes baggage fees is the important question here....

Please. POTUS is worth almost $12mil as it is and has a never-ending stream of big bucks speaking gigs and huge book pay offs waiting for him in 2016. Clinton made $13.4M in 2011 in speaking gigs alone and over $30M in book sales since leaving office.

Obama could give up 100% of his salary and it wouldn't change his life in the slightest; 5% is a fucking joke, not a gesture.

@12,

For international flights? Yes, there were.

Well considering OBAMA is a multimillionaire who has spent more taxpayer money on personal perks than any other president he should have returned the whole thing.

Instead we get a halfhearted PR stunt that is pretty much the norm for the shitstain and chief and his media lapdogs.

I never though anyone could make George Bush Jr look good.

@ Cascadian Bacon:

Whoooooooshhhh!

Hear that? That's the sound of the point of the article, zipping way, way over your head. So far over your head it's up there with the jet airliners, possibly with the low-orbit satellites.

It's not that your oh-so-despised President gave back a small sum of money.

The point (pay attention here, dolt) is that the GOP has been notably silent. And Faux News too, probably. I don't know, as I avoid that shitstain network.

Had Shrub decided to give back any of his salary, or had Darth Cheney done so, they would have been hailed by the GOP establishment and by Faux News as the highest patriots.

They didn't. The GOP has been silent. The utter looniness of the GOP and its supporters (Hi there, Cascadian Bacon!) is the story.

Now go punch yourself in the face. You've earned it, you dolt.