Buzz Growing For Congress To Take Bite Out Of Own Benefits

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
BY JACK TORRY

The last time it happened was way back in 1933.

As President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in the midst of the Great Depression, members of Congress decided to do their bit and chop their pay from $9,000 a year to $8,500.

Nearly 90 years later, as the nation’s unemployment rate is hovering at 9.1 percent and a special congressional committee aims to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion in the next decade, murmurs are growing that maybe Congress should take a pay cut.

In a letter yesterday to the 12 members of the special committee, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance urged a 10 percent reduction in congressional salaries, which would save $100 million in the next 10 years.

“During a weak economic recovery with high unemployment and many Americans being forced to do with less, Congress should not continue to reward itself with extravagant salaries and benefits,” wrote David Williams, president of the Washington-based nonpartisan organization.

“While many other cuts are also needed to have the necessary impact on the national debt, cuts to congressional salaries and benefits will demonstrate to Americans that their elected officials in Washington, D.C., are also making sacrifices in this period of economic uncertainty.”

Pete Sepp, executive director of the National Taxpayers Union, a conservative nonprofit group in Washington, said, “It’s very important to see that the folks we’ve sent to Washington are making sacrifices.”

The typical member of the House and Senate earns $174,000 a year, while the majority and minority leaders make $193,400 at a time when the average full-time worker in the nation makes about $51,000 a year. House Speaker John Boehner, R-West Chester, receives an annual salary of $223,500.

The salary is just part of the total compensation package. According to Williams, benefits for health care, pensions and sick leave boost the total value of the pay package for the average lawmaker to $285,000 a year.

Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste in Washington, said lawmakers “are certainly better-compensated than the average wage earner in the United States,” even as he acknowledged that “we’re not going to balance the budget by cutting their salaries.”

Defenders of the pay received by lawmakers point out that, unlike most people, a member of the House and Senate has to maintain two residences — one in Washington and one in their district. To save money, some lawmakers sleep in their offices. Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Upper Arlington, returns $700 of every paycheck to help pay off the national debt.

In addition, lawmakers last year agreed to a two-year pay freeze and this year approved a measure to cut overall congressional expenses by 5 percent.

In January, just before she was wounded by a would-be assassin, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., introduced a bill co-sponsored by 18 other members that would have cut congressional salaries by 5 percent.

“We are living in tough economic times,” she said at the time. “Everyone is being forced to make sacrifices. Members of Congress can’t ask any American to cut back before we are willing to make some sacrifices of our own.”

Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, introduced a bill in April that would require a lawmaker to wait until age 66 before receiving a pension — the same age as Social Security. Currently, a member can retire as early as age 50 with a full pension, depending on how long they’ve served.

In a conference call with Ohio reporters yesterday, Brown said he would support a bill to reduce salaries, although he acknowledged that he does not “hear a lot of talk about that.” In 2009, Brown donated to charity his automatic congressional pay raise.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, a member of the special deficit committee, said in a statement, “ Washington must address its addiction to higher spending, contributing to dangerous levels of debt. Everything should be on the table as we begin this bipartisan effort to cut spending and get our economy back on track.”