Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Run the Country Like Big Business Would

"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 must 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.
Reduce Senate members from 100 to 50 (one per State).
Then, reduce their staff by 25%.

Accomplish this over the next 8 years

(two steps/two elections) and of course this would require some redistricting.

Some
Yearly Monetary Gains Include:

$44,108,400
for elimination of base pay for congress. (267 members X $165,200 pay/member/ yr.)

$97,175,000
for elimination of their staff. (estimate $1.3 Million in staff per each member of the House, and $3 Million in staff per each member of the Senate every year)

$240,294
for the reduction in remaining staff by 25%.

$7,500,000,000
reduction in pork barrel ear-marks each year. (Those members whose jobs are gone. Current estimates for total government pork earmarks are at $15 Billion/yr)

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

Now there's a radical idea!


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)



Summary of
opportunity:

$ 44,108,400 reduction of congress members.


$282,100, 000 for elimination of the reduced house member staff.


$150,000,000 for elimination of reduced senate member staff.


$59,675,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining house members.


$37,500,000 for 25% reduction of staff for remaining senate members.


$7,500,000,000 reduction in pork added to bills by the reduction of congress members.

$8,073,383,400
per
year, estimated total savings. (that's 8-BILLION just to start!)

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, tax payers could save a bundle.

But unfortunately now they get full retirement after serving only 1 term.

It's time we start treating these morons like they and their friends treat us - Sheep being led to the slaughter!

2 comments:

John Going Gently said...

don't understand everything but good blog

Reschzoo said...

Thanks - Neither do I for the most part. But sometimes I realize that both you (my readers) and I get what's happening in America better than our leaders!
And if you don't think that's scary you aren't listening.
This post is just another way of saying that Congress is not pulling their weight. But we elected them to do just that and more. So if they continue to get nothing done then why do we have to keep them around?
They are so Pro-Business and Wall Street then they should live by the same rules - Don't do a good job and you're gone! N'est pas?
Thanks again for the comment.