On someone's suggestion, I'm republishing this diary, which I originally posted on 2/15/2011.
Six weeks later, it's still very very true.
Through all the congressional talk about budget cutting, one thing I haven’t heard about yet is cutting the budget of the US Congress.
According to an article on Huffington Post dated 2/25/2009 , the current annual operating budget is $4.4 Billion. That is roughly $8.2 Million per member of congress. Not including the congress people themselves, Congress has a staff of about 5300 persons. The salaries paid to those folks total about $281,989,768.02.
Organizations all over the country have been paring down staff, and pushing productivity increases like crazy, to the point there are basically no more productivity gains to be had.
I think it’s time to push for some congressional productivity. To help solve this dire deficit situation in which we find ourselves, I propose that each Congress person's staff be reduced to one staff member in Washington DC, and one in his/her home state. That should make for some substantial gains in productivity. The Congress critters and their staff members will probably have to put in a few extra hours, but, that shouldn’t be too hard. I'm sure all the Republicans in the House will be right behind their leader on his sentiments that if some federal jobs are being lost in the budget cutting process: "So be it. We're broke!"
The average Joe lucky enough to have a full time job, works 260 days and 2080 hours a year.
The current Congress? Not so much.
In the period of 1/1 to 11/30, 2010
Senate days/hours worked: 139/913
House days worked: 114/780
And then there is the question of their offices, and you know, that odd arrangement some have of sleeping in them
From the architect of the government’s office we learn that Congress occupies
5,969,394 square feet of federal building space. With the DC Congressional staff now down to 1070, that comes out to 5578 sq. ft per person! I’m sure we can all agree that 2 people could do with a lot less space than that. To foster a spirit of conviviality, I suggest we close down all congressional office buildings, Cannon House Office Buildingwith the exception of the . that’s about 1500 square feet for the Congress critter and his/her aid. Much more than the square footage of many homes.
It will probably do them some good, and give a them a bit of a taste for how many Americans are living due to the economy. We have adult college grads returning to live with their parents, and even some middle aged children and grandchildren moving back in with the parents to struggle together to make ends meet. Individual square footage of living space in this economy is probably a tiny fraction of what it was prior to the crash. I’m sure 1500 square feet is more than enough office space for the Congress folks.
Now. With respect to this matter of congress people SLEEPING in their offices? That’s going to have to stop, of course. For the purpose of energy conservation, utilities in the Cannon building will only be on and functional from the hours of 6am to 8pm. That gives them 14 hours every day to get that productivity ramped up. After that, I’m sure they’ll be needing to go somewhere to catch up on their rest for the next day back at the frind of the taxpayer’s work.
Maybe one of the smaller office buildings vacated under these budget cuts could be converted to a hotel-like arrangement. With market priced rent, naturally. Of course, in the effort to conserve energy, the utilities there would only be working from 8:15pm to 5:45am.
Another area in which I think we can squeeze out some savings, is congressional salaries. Over the course of the Great Recession, many employers have required their workers to take a salary cut. Reflecting Congressman Ryan’s desire to slash government spending by 20%, I'm sure Congress would go along with a 20% cut in their salaries as well. To prove how serious they are.
On the other hand, since the House Republicans' campaign promise was to repeal health care reform, I’m sure the congresspeople won’t object if we repeal their health coverage too. Combined with the reduced congressional staff, that will cut millions out of the Congressional operating budget, and represent a real savings to the American taxpayer.
Given all the grousing about socialism, it’s straightforward that Congresspeople will be excluded from using the DC Metro public transit, since they propose slashing funding to states and municipalities which will result in fewer cops on the beat, they will no longer have a security detail, and their travel to and from their home districts will, of course, not be subsidized by taxpayer money.
The downside of course, is the children. With a cut in salary, having to pay for their own housing, transportation, health insurance, security and so forth, the Congresscritters may not be able to afford that private tuition any more. I’m sure their kids will enjoy sharing the classroom with the other 39 kids at their failing local public school which no longer offers physical education, arts, music and world language instruction.
But the budget will be happy.