An interesting question came up during last night's CNN-YouTube Democratic presidential debate: Would candidates, if elected to the White House, be willing to forgo the president's annual salary of $400,000 in exchange for the federal minimum wage, which just went up to $5.85 an hour?
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Edwards? Sure. Hillary? Yep. Obama? No problem. Sen. Chris Dodd? No way.
DODD: I have two young daughters who I'm trying to educate them. [Ed: On the basis of that sentence, you may not want to home school them.] I don’t think I could live on the minimum wage...
Fair enough, Senator. That's why people distinguish between the minimum wage and a living wage. And you've done admirable work on this issue in the past, seeking to raise the minimum wage to more than $7. But what surprised me most was your next comment, which suggested that you consider your Senate salary a little spare:
OBAMA: Well, we can afford to work for the minimum wage because most folks on this stage have a lot of money. It's the folks... on that screen who deserve -- you're doing all right, Chris, compared to, I promise you, the folks who are on that screen.
DODD: Not that well, I'll tell you, Barack.
Really? In fact, Sen. Dodd, you make $165,200 a year as a senator; your net worth has been reported to be between $1.5 million and $3.5 million; and you own a vacation cottage in Ireland. What's more, you can anticipate a nice retirement thanks to your Senate pension, which averaged about $50,000 a year in 2000. Would that the rest of us could be so fortunate.
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