Re cutting the president’s wages — I strongly suspect that the $39K will simply all that Ron Paul will take as President, just as Arnold Schwarzenegger only took a symbolic $1 a year as California’s governor. That doesn’t mean that the salary of the President would be cut, but rather that this is the amount that HE would accept as President.
It’s not the salary of the president that is the problem, it’s the expense account type items for vacations and entertaining, the misuse of AirForce One and all the other perks that Obama and Michelle abuse.