From the National Taxpayers Union:
Most Americans are well aware that Members of Congress love to spend other people's money. Rep. Nathan Deal and Sen. Zell Miller have introduced bills with teeth, H.R. 3736 and S. 2041, that will give Members of Congress personal financial incentives to be more responsible with taxpayer dollars.
Rather than creating a complex and arcane web of parliamentary schemes to bring down the deficit as Congress has done -- with little success -- in the past, this bill will implement an automatic five percent pay reduction and void the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for all Members of Congress if deficit spending occurs. If the deficit spending continues, the pay cut will be increased to ten percent and Member COLAs will continue to be voided for every consecutive fiscal year that expenditures exceed revenues. Pay reductions would be capped at a maximum of ten percent. To shield Congressional salaries against war or terrorism-induced deficit spending, an exclusionary provision is included in the legislation.
This pro-active bill is an important way to link Congressional pay to actual performance -- something that is done all too rarely in Washington. Taxpayers across the country already understand the importance of being paid to perform their jobs well because so many Americans do it every day. If the country is ever to see the light at the end of the deficit-spending tunnel, innovative solutions are essential. The Fiscal Responsibility Act provides a needed mechanism for change.
I like the pay-for-performance concept in principle, but I read both the Senate and House versions of this bill and saw nothing that would preclude tax increases to eliminate the deficit. Such a provision would be a necessary component to make this a fiscally responsible law. I suppose that's why God created amendments.
You can edit the National Taxpayers Union's sample message to express support for a version of the bill which includes a tax increase prohibition or spending cap.
You can search and read all pending bills at this Library of Congress site.
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