Putting your money where your mouth is

Josh Lederman has an Associated Press article at Philly.com about the President:

Sharing a bit of budget pain, President Obama will return five percent of his salary to the Treasury in a show of solidarity with Federal workers smarting from government spending cuts. His decision grew out of a desire to share in the sacrifice that government employees are making, a White House official said. Hundreds of thousands of workers could be forced to take unpaid leave if Congress does not reach an agreement soon to undo the cuts.
As the White House warns of dire economic consequences from the $85 billion in cuts that started to hit federal programs last month, the administration has faced repeated questions about how the White House itself would be affected. The cancellation of White House tours in particular has drawn mixed reactions.
A five percent cut from the President's salary of $400,000 per year amounts to $20,000.
The move will be retroactive to 1 March, the day the cuts started to kick in, 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 fourteen days' pay, the same level of cut that other Defense Department civilians are being forced to take. As many as seven hundred thousand civilians will have to take one unpaid day off each week for up to fourteen weeks in the coming months.
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. The White House did not say whether Vice President Biden would make a similar gesture.
The five percent that Obama will hand back mirrors the five percent cut that domestic agencies took when the reductions went into effect. The Pentagon's budget took an eight 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.

Rico says it's a noble gesture (if a bit grandstanding, but, hey, this is politics), but Congress should still be all fired for making it necessary... (And if they fuck up the meat inspections, expect lawsuits.)