Some very good friends of mine recently took a 20% pay cut – thanks to the doofs in Congress.
Yep, that’s right, they were fur-lowed one day a week when the sequester was enacted. Since $85 Billion in cuts were mandated. It appears that the only people being screwed and feeling the impact are “normal Joes.” The folks that pay the fricken taxes anyway.
$85,000,000,000.00 — that is the amount we need to reduce our budget by. I can think of a couple of places I’d start at, rather than cutting White House tours, and they include:
- US Senate Hair Care. A staff of 10 folks, averaging just over $24K / year. But they were still $400K in the hole last year.
- Kill the mandatory Congressional pay raise for Senators and Representatives. What have they done (that is good) for the country? If you and I worked for our employers at the same rate of accomplishment – we’d have been fired a long while ago, while their “Base” pay has been frozen at $174,000 for newbies, their allowances and other pays have increased.
- I propose our Congressmen be payed a daily per diem rate, which is how they were generally paid from 1789 to 1855; when they made $6.00 a day. The current per diem rate for DC peaks out at $226.00 + $71.00 ($297.00/day) per day. This may actually save taxpayer’s money. It’s not like they are there everyday. Assuming they are there for 2 out of every 3 days, that only comes up to $73K a year, $100K less than their salary; just ‘sayin…. If they’re not in DC working, they shouldn’t be getting paid.
- Cease the “Franking Privilege.” This allows Senators to send mail for free. Last time I checked the USPS was in a world of hurt. Senators receive an “allowance” of up to $. Make them manage their staff and expenses, hell; they’re only doing the work of the people for 2 out of 3 weeks anyways…
- Give them the standard IRS mileage rate. While traveling, they earn $0.64 per mile when a trip is <500 miles from DC.
That’s enough for today, I have to work on my “Honey Do” list. Have a good day folks, and remember,
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