Don't Expect Congress To Give Back

(Image above is from the website called InlandPolitics.com.)

Recently a new series of drastic cuts to all government discretionary programs went into effect (called the "sequestration" cuts). This will affect everything the government does, and will particularly hurt the Americans who are already hurting due to to Republican recession. Almost everything will be cut -- education, food stamps, school lunch programs, aid to the poor and disadvantaged, environmental cleanup, veterans programs, Headstart program, salaries of government workers, and many other areas.

I say almost everything, because there is an area of government that is immune to the drastic cuts -- the salaries of elected officials. Amazingly, those salaries and benefits are exempted from the cuts that will be felt by other Americans. The president has stepped forward and voluntarily is giving back to the government 5% of his $400,000 salary (or about $20,000 a year). It's not a huge amount (and he certainly won't have to do without any essentials), but it does show that he understands that if all other Americans are expected to cut back, then elected officials should do the same.

Don't hold your breath for anyone in Congress to follow the lead of the president and return some of their salary back to the national treasury. Congress doesn't mind cutting money that hurting Americans depend on to live, but they aren't about to share any of the pain -- in spite of the fact that they make about four times the income of the average American (and work less than anyone with a full-time job).

However, most of the people in the general public believe Congress should share in the pain though. A new survey done by the Gallup Poll (done on April 6th and 7th of 1,025 nationwide adults -- with a margin of error of 4 points) shows that this is the view of about 8 out of 10 Americans. And this feeling cuts across party lines. Here are the percentages who believe Congress men/women should return at least 5% of their salaries:

General public...............78%
Democrats...............77%
Republicans...............82%

But Americans would like to see an even deeper cut of congressional salaries than that (which probably reflects the high unpopularity of Congress right now). Here are the figures from the same three groups who believe Congress men/women should return at least 25% of their salaries:

General public...............79%
Democrats...............79%
Republicans...............79%

Don't expect this to happen though. Most of those in Congress think they are better than other Americans, and shouldn't have to share the pain they so easily deal out (even though most are rich enough they wouldn't even notice a 25% cut).