COMMENTARY | So the Senate just avoided another government shutdown. This is getting old. Any bets we'll get the same 11th-hour drama as the "Super Committee'' bickers over that $1.5 trillion in budget cuts it has to deliver by Nov. 23? The president calls for "shared sacrifice" (AKA: tax the rich). Congress reflexively wants to solve the economic problems it has caused by "reforming" private sector entitlement programs. I say "reform" Congress -- cut their salaries, raise their retirement age and make all members of Congress ineligible to get a single dime if they are forced to resign in disgrace.
According to The Hill, members of Congress receive a base salary of $174,000 a year. That's about three times the size of the paychecks brought home by the people who pay their salaries. Majority and minority leaders like Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada make $193,400 per year. Speaker of the House John Boehner makes $223,500. A 10 percent cut to the salaries of those who are making life hard on the rest of us would cut nearly $100 million over the next 10 years. I call that a damn good start.
In addition to the pay cut, lawmakers should eliminate their automatic cost-of-living increase. When the House voted not to give its members one in 2010, they saved we-the-taxpayers more than $1.4 million. Permanently pulling the plug on their automatic pay raise would continue and increase the savings exponentially over the long term. We the people have to earn our raises. From now on, so should they.
Raising their retirement age would bring them even further into the economic reality they've given us.
According to a 2011 report by the Congressional Research Service, the retirement age for members of congress to get "immediate, full pension" is 60 or older "with 10 years of service in Congress, or age 62 with five years of civilian federal service, including service in Congress." Members aged 55 to 59 with at least 30 years of service get an immediate, reduced pension. If they get in soon after hitting the age requirement - 25 years old in the House and 30 in the Senate -- and can hang on for 20 years, they can skip out with benefits at the age of 50.
The National Taxpayers Union reported that our elected representatives could retire with up to 80 percent of their salary. That's about three times what an executive in the private sector could make.
Government Executive.com reported that Rep. Bobby Schilling, R-Ill., proposed legislation in June that would tie the age at which lawmakers can begin tapping their pensions directly to the age they set for the rest of us to collect Social Security. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced a similar idea in April. So the rest of them were where on this "bipartisan" effort?
As of Oct. 1, 2009, there were 455 retired members of Congress receiving federal pensions. Of those, 275 were receiving an average yearly pension of $69,012; the 180 remaining members retired with an average annual pension of $40,140. That's $26,203,500 a year. While precise savings are difficult to assess due to numerous variables like age and length of federal service for each congressional retiree, Pete Sepp, vice president for communications and policy at the National Taxpayers Union, estimates taxpayers could save "several million dollars annually" by implementing reforms like the ones proposed by Schilling and Brown.
Last but not least, there is this:
The National Taxpayers Union also reported that New York sexting sensation Rep. Anthony Weiner "will be eligible for a congressional pension of up to $46,224" when he's 62 and could eventually collect the balance of his Congressional Thrift Savings Plan of $216,011.
Get out your calculator and think of all the other representatives who have been forced to resign because they were caught literally with their pants down. We don't have that kind of security even if we excel at our job and follow all the rules. If they betray our trust, why is it that we're the only ones who have to honor the contract?
In the end, the Super Committee has two months to come up with $1.5 trillion in budget cuts. While these suggestions will not solve all of the economic problems, they will correct our leadership problems. And while there remains a need to reform private sector entitlement programs that consume 58 percent of our national budget, it is long past the time for those who are paid by those who rely on those benefits to face the same realities and make the same sacrifices.
The Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal and guarantees us the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Where is it written that those we elect to Congress are so special they can grant for themselves a lifetime guarantee at our expense?
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