Dana Milbank calls Obama's self-induced pay cut 'not much of a sacrifice

Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, more often liberal on the issues than not, isn't impressed with President Obama's gesture of solidarity with furloughed federal workers...

The White House said this week that Obama would return 5 percent of his salary (retroactive to March) to the Treasury. It's a gesture of sympathy for government workers who have been affected by automatic spending cuts known as sequestration.

Of the voluntary move, Milbank writes Friday:

[T]he amount — $20,000 of his $400,000 salary — is so little for a man made wealthy by his political fame that it comes across as patronizing. ...

For a man worth millions and soon to be worth tens of millions of dollars, $20,000 is not much of a sacrifice. ...

If Obama really wants to share in the furloughed workers’ “sacrifice,” he should ... give back all but a dollar of his $400,000 salary. When he leaves office, he’ll be able to earn it back with a couple days’ work.

@eScarry