Lee makes nearly $25,000 on book | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

>Last year, Sen. Mike Lee penned his first book, The Freedom Agenda: Why a Balanced Budget Amendment is Necessary to Restore Constitutional Government. The title pretty much says it all.

The book, which touts Lee's belief in making the government live within its means and explains how a balanced budget amendment would increase Americans liberty and safety, also made the senator about $25,000 richer.

Conservative book maker, Regnery Publishing, paid Lee $24,999.99 last year, according to the senator's personal financial disclosure filed this week.

So why not make it an even $25,000? Is there some secret threshold they didn't want to hit or did Regnery not want to cough up that extra penny?

Lee spokesman Brian Phillips says there's no conspiracy behind the odd amount. Regnery paid Lee for his book in three separate payments of $8,333.33 and that accounts for why it doesn't round up to $25,000 even.

However, I have a suggestion for the publishing company: Next time, just add an extra penny to one check to make it nice and clean.

— Thomas Burr Twitter.com/thomaswburr