My barber’s view.
I went to my barber last Thursday. We discussed the sequestration and related matters. Her view was that the Congress and the President should all take a pay cut. They are not doing their jobs and haven’t passed a budget in many years. If she did not do her job, she wouldn’t receive any money, so fair is fair. She also thought they need to balance the budget and come to a consensus on the steps needed to accomplish this. She couldn’t run a deficit at home without severe consequences so why should they think in Washington that they can run a deficit without consequences.
We at United We Stand wholeheartedly agree with her. As we state in our overview, the first steps are to have the President and Congress agree to cut their own pay as indicated below.
To set the stage and show leadership:
- The President offers and requests that Congress pass budgets cutting his pay and that of his Cabinet Officers over 3 years by 20%(10% in 2013, 5% in 2014, and 5% in 2015).
- The Congress, in a like fashion, passes budgets cutting the pay of Congress by the same amount over 3 years (10% in 2013, 5% in 2014, and 5% in 2015). The 27th Amendment to the Constitution prohibits Congressional pay from varying until after another election. However, this can be overcome by legislation asking them to donate that portion of their salary back to the federal government each month. For those that do not make the donation, the same legislation could have their staff budgets cut by 2 times the amounts not donated as well as provide for a vehicle to publicize their staff cuts .
3. Pass budgets cutting the pay of all other senior leaders in the 3 Branches of our Federal Government by 10% over 2 years (5% in 2013 and 5% in 2014).
The second set of steps are to balance the budget over time as below.
Set targets for deficit reduction, budget breakeven, and debt as a percentage of GDP and pass legislation to enforce the plan.
Propose, review and implement changes in all areas of the budget as required by the agreed plan:
- Propose, review, and implement tax changes.
- Propose, review, and implement expenditure changes in all programs.
Harry Pukay-Martin
