Politicans - Lead By Example!!

All across the country governments, Federal and state, are looking for ways to cut their budgets and reduce spending to reduce their deficits. Many states are in the same position our Federal government is in – in the hole when it comes to actual money. There are many reasons for these deficits but the largest, obviously, is that our governments have been living beyond their means. Like many families in this country, our politicians are spending more money than they take in. The difference here is if a family gets too far into debt they have two options, get another job to increase their income or file bankruptcy. When our government spends too much they expect their constituents to pay for it.

In Wisconsin, Ohio, and other states, governors are working to strip government employees of their bargaining rights so they can decrease their pay and benefits in order to save money. These plans are effecting government office workers, teachers, firefighters, police, etc., and obviously (and expectedly) are causing great turmoil in the states where proposed. It’s no surprise that these people don’t want their benefits cut and their bargaining rights taken away. And rightly so. But is it the right way to go to save money?

There are definitely problems with some unions who have negotiated their pay and/or benefits to a point where they are unsustainable by the corporations or the governments that have to pay them. The unions, however, are only partly responsible for these problems since the employer negotiated the terms and arrived at an agreement. So should the employer, in this case state governments, now be allowed to simply disband the unions and cut employees’ pay and benefits because they negotiated something they can’t sustain? I really don’t know the answer to that question but I know if the governments continue to drain money they will ultimately fail. And if that happens these people who are now protesting will be unemployed.

The President and many of our elected officials in Washington have said we all need to tighten our belts and make sacrifices to assist with reducing the Federal deficit. One Republican Senator, Ben Quayle of Arizona, has introduced a bill that would cut the pay of all Federal employees by 15%. This is on top of a pay freeze announced by the President and a hiring freeze government wide. What’s interesting is that I haven’t heard the President, Senators or members of the House say they would be taking a pay cut of any kind. There have been bills proposed to cut Congressional pay by 5% but my research so far hasn’t shown that bill, or any other like it, has been approved. And even if it was – 5% for Congress and 15% for everyone else? Oh, the sacrifices our elected officials make in the name of the people!

There have been a small handful of individual elected officials who have voluntarily taken a pay cut and they are to be applauded. Others have opted out of the first class health care system in favor of their own, private health care plans to save money. These are the types of people we need in our government.

I believe if our governments, Federal and state, want the people to sacrifice and accept pay cuts to help pay the bills created by those governments, our elected officials should lead by example. They should all take pay cuts and it should be front page news all over the country. Maybe then the people would be more willing to accept what’s being done to them. I don’t think it will change many minds as far as bargaining rights go but it might make a pay cut easier to swallow if it was first done by our politicians.

I could be wrong about or politicians not taking these pay cuts but I can’t find any evidence. If I’m wrong I welcome someone to show me. I certainly don’t want to criticize our government unfairly.