Taxing Our Children
By Jerry Teague
All of these politicians screaming for reform. I have an idea. Take a pay cut. Do you know that the salary and staff salary for Georgia’s House of Representatives (Fed) and Senators are: You might be surprised.
Here is a one year annual savings proposal to taxpayers by asking the Representatives to take a 25% pay cut:
| Representative | Combined rep and staff salary ‘08 | Suggested Salary ‘09 | Annual Savings |
| John Barrow (HR) |
$943,179 |
$754,543 |
$188,636 |
| Sanford Bishop (HR) |
$1,133,228 |
$906,582 |
$226,646 |
| Paul Brown (HR) |
$840,236 |
$672,260 |
$168,066 |
| Nathan Deal (HR) |
$1,113,524 |
$890,819 |
$222,705 |
| Phil Gingrey (HR) |
$1,142,817 |
$914,254 |
$228,563 |
| Hank Johnson (HR) |
$1,228,091 |
$982,472 |
$245,619 |
| Jack Kingston (HR) |
$1,026,164 |
$820,931 |
$205,233 |
| John Lewis (HR) |
$1,154,103 |
$923,282 |
$230,821 |
| John Linder (HR) |
$1,119,696 |
$895,756 |
$223,940 |
| Jim Marshall (HR) |
$920,694 |
$736,444 |
$184,139 |
| Tom Price (HR) |
$1,031,535 |
$825,228 |
$206,307 |
| David Scott (HR) |
$1,098,775 |
$879,020 |
$219,755 |
| Lyn Westmoreland (HR) |
$1,066,071 |
$852,856 |
$213,215 |
| Johnny Isakson (S) |
$2,653,904 |
$2,123,123 |
$530,781 |
| Saxby Chambliss (S) |
$2,752,694 |
$2,202,155 |
$550,539 |
| Total |
$19,224,801 |
$15,3798,36 |
$4,044,965 |
So, what is your congressman truly doing for you? Increasing staff! What a better and legal way to buy an election. Let’s vote for change and reduce the budgets of the house workers. Later we can look at the salaries of these federal government staffers on an individual basis. You might even know a couple of them. Data compiled from www.legistorm.com