By AP/KWMU
Washington, DC – Barack Obama last year reaped in big bucks from book deals, got a higher salary as a new U.S. Senator, and his wife got a big promotion. As a result, their total household income was almost $1.7 million.
That surpasses their total income from the seven previous years combined.
During 2005, Obama's salary almost tripled to about $154,000 after he left the Illinois state Senate for Congress. Also, Michelle Obama's income as an administrator at the University of Chicago Hospitals more than doubled to about $317,000.
Obama is Illinois' junior U.S. Senator. He told The Associated Press that his wife, a Harvard law school graduate, deserves the extra pay. He says she can't be faulted for "being smarter and better qualified for all sorts of jobs" than he is.