Leisure Engagement Passion

Talking about our Government is not an easy topic to discuss with others.  Most people I know say they have their own problems to deal with, let alone the entire government.  But what I can’t understand is how they don’t relate the two.  Without knowing what our Government is doing, it’s our tax money that turns the wheels of government, is sticking our heads in the sand and saying let me know how it turns out.

Are you still employed?

Below is an email I received and I thought if I just send it out to my email list, it could take awhile before it gets around to those of us who care to make a difference.  I searched for a site to link to Jerry, but unfortunately  couldn’t find it.  I’ll keep trying.  Thanks Jerry Shambaugh for your Proposal, your ideas and your desire to turn the US around.

The Proposal:
When a company falls on difficult times, one of the things that seems to happen is they reduce their staff and workers. The remaining workers need to find ways to continue to do a good job or risk that their job would be eliminated as well. Wall street and the media normally congratulate the CEO for making this type of “tough decision”, and his board of directors gives him a big bonus.

Our government should not be immune from similar risks.

Therefore: Reduce the House of Representatives from the current 435 members to
218 members and Senate members from 100 to 50. Also reduce their remaining staff by 25%.

Accomplish this over the next 8 years. (two steps / two elections) and of course this would require some redistricting.

Some yearly cost reductions would include:

$44m for elimination of base pay for congress. (267 members X $165k pay / member / yr.)

$97m for elimination of the above people’s staff. (estimate $1.3m in staff per each member of the House, and $3m in staff per each member of the Senate every year)

$241m for the reduction in remaining staff by 25%.

$7.5B reduction in pork barrel ear-marks each year (those members whose jobs are gone. Current estimates for total government pork earmarks are at $15B / yr)

The remaining representatives would need to work smarter and would need to improve efficiencies. It might even be in their best interests to work together for the good of our country ??????

We may also expect that smaller committees might lead to a more efficient resolution of issues as well. It might even be easier to keep track of what your representative is doing.

Congress has more tools available to do their jobs than it had back in
1911 when the current number of representatives was established (telephone, computers, cell phones to name a few)

Note:
Congress did not hesitate to head home when it was a holiday, when the nation needed a real fix to the economic problems. Also, we have 3 senators that have not been doing their jobs for the past 18+ months (on the campaign trail) and still, they all have been accepting full pay. These facts alone support a reduction in senators and congress.

Summary of opportunity:

$ 44m reduction of congress members.

$282m for elimination of the reduced house member staff.

$150m for elimination of reduced senate member staff.

$59.6m for 25% reduction of staff for remaining house members.

$37.5m for 25% reduction of staff for remaining senate members.

$7.5B reduction in pork added to bills by the reduction of congress members.

$8,074m per year, estimated total savings.

Big business does these types of cuts all the time.

If Congresspersons were required to serve 20, 25 or 30 years (like everyone else) in order to collect retirement benefits there is no telling how much we would save. Now they get full retirement after serving only ONE term.

IF you are happy how the Congress spends our taxes, ignore this message. IF you are not happy, then I assume you know what to do.  Comments are welcome, it’s good to know you care.

An email I received from the CAGW.

With the likelihood of a $1 trillion deficit in the current fiscal year and massive new taxes and spending on the way, I want to urge you in the strongest terms possible to please take a few minutes now to complete our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY.  CAGW needs to hear your views today.

Here’s why your survey answers are so important right now.
While we hope that President-elect Barack Obama’s vision of “change” includes changing Washington’s carefree attitude toward wasting tax dollars, many members of Congress, by their own admission, have “pent-up demand” for new spending and taxes.  Some of the proposed tax and spending increases are staggering.

Let me share with you just a few of the most dangerous proposals under serious consideration in Washington right now.

First, as Congress and the new Administration try to decide who is going to qualify for their “share the wealth” tax increases very early next year (those making $250,000 or $200,000 or $150,000 or even $125,000 or less), the general consensus is that the tax hike on this group will total 25 percent, including higher tax rates and phasing out exemptions and itemized deductions.  The fact that history has shown that you can’t tax your way out of a recession may not stop this misguided proposal from going forward.

But I must warn you it is not just the so-called “rich” that the new Congress and Administration will be coming after.

What will be particularly difficult for many retirees is that the big spenders are working toward a 33 percent increase in the tax rates on dividends and capital gains.  They’re also advocating reinstatement of the death tax at a whopping 45 percent rate, and a new payroll tax on employers that is estimated at 7 percent to help pay for the Obama government-run healthcare plan.

And if reducing Americans’ income at a time when many are struggling to make ends meet is not enough to push the economy into a deep and prolonged recession, the big spenders are proposing to increase corporate taxes by 25 percent even though American businesses already face the second-highest marginal tax rate in the industrialized world.  All Americans will pay dearly for these corporate taxes through higher prices, more lost jobs, and an even more stagnant economy.

To make matters worse, President-elect Obama and his allies in Congress have promised $1.3 trillion in “tax cuts” over the next 10 years to lower- and middle-income Americans, many of whom don’t pay federal income taxes at all!  Some 47 million filers, or 33 percent, don’t pay taxes today.  That number would rise by 16 million, to 44 percent, under the Obama plan.

Mark my words, if this unprecedented giveaway goes forward, it will push America toward bankruptcy!

These proposals are made more dangerous when you add them to the fact that we are facing a deepening economic recession and a budget deficit in 2009 that very likely will reach an all-time record of $1 trillion.  And this deficit may very quickly get $300 billion, $500 billion, or even $700 billion higher as Congress considers an ill-conceived, quick-fix, giveaway stimulus program.  This stimulus package will simply increase the deficit and, in all likelihood, will be as much of a waste as the $100 billion in stimulus checks that President Bush sent out.

To help fight the massive taxes and record amounts of deficit-producing, wasteful spending being proposed and, at the same time, help CAGW pick our battles over the coming weeks and months, I urgently need you to participate in our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY.  Your survey answers will arm us with the evidence of public opposition we need to derail many of the worst tax and spending plans.

Completing our survey is the most powerful way you can show your anger over the skyrocketing deficit while delivering an urgent demand to stop the most reckless and radical spending and tax proposals.

In addition, your survey answers will help set CAGW’s agenda and direct our most critical efforts in the months ahead.  This is your opportunity to help decide which upcoming battles CAGW should wage.

As I have said before, I may be CAGW’s president, but CAGW is your organization.  CAGW’s success or failure rests in your hands, so please give us your survey answers today.

The results of our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY will be publicized to the news media and key opinion leaders here in Washington and across the country and included in an upcoming edition of “E-News.”  What’s more, we will use your survey answers to focus a media spotlight on the financial dangers posed by a $1 trillion deficit and demonstrate that there is growing public opposition to the proposed massive expansion of failed big-government policies.

I assure you, the #1 way CAGW can help stop wasteful, deficit spending and economy-stagnating tax increases is by producing solid evidence of overwhelming public support for spending cuts, deficit reduction, and preserving the Bush tax cuts.

If you want to see Congress stop the wasteful spending, halt the drive for higher taxes, reject the pork-barrel projects that are hollowing out our nation’s defenses and other vital programs, and revise the proposal for government-run healthcare so that it is focused on the needy and won’t bankrupt America, I urge you to take part in our 2009 CAGW MEMBER’S ONLY NATIONAL SURVEY today.

And when you do, I also need to ask you to make a year-end donation today to help CAGW act on the recommendations you have made.