3.30.2009

How To Save the United States Money

In one fell swoop, I can save the country almost 40 Million Dollars annually, and it isn't by any tax or by changing any social program. I know 40M sounds like a small amount, but if we extend my plan further it could end up being more.

1. Cut the salary of Senators by $80K per year.
Senators currently earn almost $180K per year. If we were to cut that back to a less lucrative wage, $100K, I think we could solve a lot of problems while still paying them more than they should make.

A. We would save $4M per year just in salary alone.
B. We would attract people who are interested in serving rather than people looking to make a career of being a public servant.

2. Cut the salaries of Congressmen by $80K per year.
In a similar type of cut mentioned above, we could save $35M. Now we are at almost $40M of savings and no one has been hurt too badly.

3. Equalize the salaries of Congressmen and Senators.
Senators and Congressmen in leadership roles earn anywhere from $20K - 50K more than their counterparts. Why? This is something that is a public service and people should want to do. If we were to equalize the salaries, we may get people better suited to public service roles.

I think this gets my point across, but there are many other cuts that we could make in this line that could save the country a lot of money while retaining a sense of what the positions were supposed to be.

As a final thought, Benjamin Franklin suggested during the Constitutional Convention that elected government officials should not be paid. This fits in a lot with the Federalist Papers in that our elected officials should want to do the jobs, keep them for a short period, and move on to, or back to, their given professions. The fact that we allow people to retain their offices for decades is beyond me as not a single group of them has ever proven that they are the right people to make decisions for our country.