Monday October 3, 2005

Dear Visitor:

On November 6th our nation (The United States of America) will be voting. I urge you to keep government spending in mind when electing representatives. I urge you to vote.

For years, there have been people calling for reducing foreign aide as a budget cutting measure. This may be valid, but according to Macroeconomics/Slavin, this amounts to less than 2%, if I remember correctly, of our national budget. According to the same text, we can divide our national budget into about three equally size parts. One third to Defense, I believe we want ourselves to be safe, so this may be trim-able, but should be done with care. One third to paying off the national debt, this could be trimmed greatly by each citizen paying their estimated share as quickly as possible (the current debt can be found here), which currently is almost $27,000. The other third is paying the wages and benefits of Federal Employees. This is the easiest to trim.

Many federal employees, like most government employees, do not do the same amount of work, nor quality of work per dollar as people in the private sector. This is largely due to over-unionization and extreme stupidity of our federal government. Retirement age is 57 or less for many positions with the possibility of retiring, with full benefits, after 10 years of service. This is ridiculous. We must force retirement age to 60, minimum. We must also make it 20 years of service, or similar, to match the private sector. We also need to do away with any yearly cost of living increase, which is automatic for everyone unless congress votes against specific parts, which ranges from 1 to 10%.

Moreover, we need to kick our representative governments in the backside. Their salaries are as follows (the numbers are from 2002):

• House Members & Delegates and all Senators .......... $154,700
• House and Senate Majority & Minority Leaders .......... $171,900
• Speaker of the House .............................................. $198,600

In addition senators receive, and representatives similar, a per Diem (on top of their salary), a lump sum to get reelected in their district, free travel within the United States, free stationary and free official journals. This is just ridiculous, what do they do that is worth so much money. For the most part they mess up our country and take our money. It is time to tell them enough, and have their salaries reduced.

Moreover, most private companies no longer pay into pension plans. The employee pays it all usually. A federal employee, specifically our elected law makers, receive Social Security and FERS on the average of around $52,464. I also urge you to ask your representatives to follow the law and make all compensation similar to that of the private sector, except the salary for Senators and Representatives which should be around $100,000, and do away with using taxes to supplement a pension fund. Enough is enough.

Overall, I request you take the following actions:

• Request that little or no pension fund contribution comes from tax dollars; few employers contribute to pension funds these days
• Request that the retirement age for government employees moves to 60 minimum with 20 years of service required; or 65 with 10 years of service required
• Request that pensions be adjusted according to years of service for elected and unelected federal employees and officers
• Request that salary for House Members and all Senators be dropped to $100,000 with appropriate adjustment for Leaders and Speakers
• Request that Congress become fiscally responsible and not only balance the budget but have several billion in surplus every year which gets saved for future emergencies and 10% of which goes to help pay off the national debt
• Request that the government shrinks its workforce by 25% within 2 years, this includes: senatorial staff, presidential staff, and all other branches of the Federal government
• Request that the government removes any and all yearly cost of living increases that are not reflected in averages of similar jobs in the private sector
• Request laws that all employees must deliver quality and quantity of work similar, or better, per dollar as the private sector
• Request that Congress start implementing a tax on every citizen each year regardless of income, but at a reasonable level, to pay off the national debt over a period of 20 years

I am asking a lot, but it is time to shrink the spending and size of the Federal government. It is time to fix the stupidity that America has become and is becoming.

Sincerely, Trever Adams