Obama busts publishing trend

“Obama made $1.7 million in 2010

By Perry Bacon Jr.

President may be Barack Obama’s most prestigious job, but his most lucrative is author.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported a gross income of $1,728,096 in 2010, according to their federal tax returns, which the White House released Monday. President Obama collects a $400,000 salary as commander in chief, but received the vast majority of his income from sales of his three non-fiction books: “The Audacity of Hope,” “Dreams From My Father” and “Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.”

The Obamas paid $453,770 in federal taxes. The First Family donated $245,075, about 14 percent of their income, to 36 different charities. The largest gift was a $131, 075 donation to Fisher House Foundation, a nonprofit that builds homes near military hospitals where family members can temporarily stay free of charge while a wounded service member recovers.

The president is making more than the vast majority of Americans, but his income dropped from 2009, when book sales, along with a $1.4 million award for the Nobel Prize, put him at more than $5.5 million.

Vice President Biden and his wife, Jill, made $379,178 and paid $86,626 in total federal taxes for 2010.”