Beyond the Dome

Here’s one way to tell who is the least elitist, out-of-touch presidential candidate: Which one has to show up to work every day to get paid?

We’re kidding, of course. None of them do. It was a trick question.

Thanks to a little-noticed change in the law three years ago, Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois, Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, and John McCain of Arizona can all spend as much time as they want on the campaign trail without worrying about losing their Senate salaries of $165,200 a year. You can find their salaries in their tax returns here for McCain, here for Obama and here for Clinton.

Until 2005, an obscure law required Congress to dock the pay of senators and House members for every day they missed work, unless they or a family member were sick that day.

It’s not like anyone was enforcing the law, though. Just ask Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who only made 10 percent of the votes during his presidential run in 2004.

Senate appropriators decided they couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. So in the fiscal 2006 legislative branch appropriations bill, they rewrote the law so it wouldn’t apply to the Senate. (It’s still on the books for House members.)

At the time, the National Taxpayers Union protested the move, saying Congress should “put real teeth” into the law rather than repealing it for the Senate. That wasn’t the appropriators’ preferred solution, though. “If you’re going to ignore a law, let’s get it off the books,” Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., who chaired the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee, said at the time.

Now, with three senators running for the White House full time, the taxpayers’ group says Congress should reinstate the law – or the candidates should voluntarily give their salaries back. “At least they could reimburse the taxpayers for the ridiculously long campaign season,” said Pete Sepp, a spokesman for the group.

That’s not likely, though, unless the pressure comes from the taxpayers themselves – especially the ones who live in the swing states.