Staff writer for the Washington Free Beacon Ellison Barber was interviewed today on Fox News about a report from the WFB's Elizabeth Harrington calling into question whether President Obama followed through on his promise to return five percent of his salary.
Obama and several other officials and Congressional leaders including Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D., Mo.), and Sen. Mark Begich (D., Alaska) all promised to return a portion their salaries in line with the sequester cuts.
Barber said by that metric President Obama owes about $20,000. The White House has so far refused to confirm whether the president has actually written a $20,000 check to the Treasury.
More broadly, there is no evidence thus far any of the aforementioned public officials have followed through on their promises to part of their salary.
"It's a silly lie. Since everybody else didn't promise it there was no reason to make the promise that you were going to do this if you weren't actually going to follow up and do it," Barber said. "It goes to issues of integrity which I think voters always care deeply about."
Update: A spokeswoman for Begich said that the senator has, in fact, written a check to the Department of the Treasury for the equivalent of four days of salary.