It was reported on the news this morning how Congresswoman Ann Kirkpatrick (D) of Arizona was proposing a long-overdue bill to the House. She acknowledged that with the very difficult economic times our nation is currently going through that it would definitely be in order for congress to do their share, for once, by taking a pay cut too. With that being her premise she is introducing a bill to cut congress' pay by 5%.Now 5% is not much, but it is a least a good start. With congressional approval ratings now at 14% and their disapproval amongst the American populace being at 80%, it definitely would not hurt things for them to at least go through the motions of showing some solidarity with we the people during this tough fiscal time period.
Odds of this passing are realistically not very good, which further will bode ill for congress. To Congresswoman Kirkpatrick's credit, she has stated that regardless of the fate of her bill, she will voluntarily take the 5% pay cut anyway. She further has stated that despite several attempts to enact a congressional pay cut in the past, the last time this was actually done successfully was way back in 1933.She claims that she does have a fair amount of bi-partisan backing for her bill so far. Now whether our fiscally irresponsible Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, will actually schedule this bill for a vote remains to be seen. In times of trillion dollar deficits and $74 trillion dollar national debt, this is little more than window-dressing for sure. But at least one Democratic Congresswoman cares enough to make the attempt. Kudos to you, Congresswoman Kirkpatrick, for this likely futile endeavor!
