I did some math today, and decided that the best way to balance the budget would be to give Congress and the White House real motivation to do so. Check this out ...

* Every Member of the House and Senate is paid a salary of $174,000 per year.
* Every Majority/Minority Leader is paid an additional $38,800 in addition to his/her salary.
* The Speaker of the House gets an additional $49,500 in addition to his/her salary.
* The President gets a salary of $400,000 per year, plus a $50,000 expense account.
* The Vice President gets a salary of $230,700 per year.
* Every member of the President's cabinet is paid a salary of $199,700 per year.
* Every living past President is paid a pension of $599,100 per year.

This totals $97,492,400 per year, and does not include any money paid to Congressional staff members or other employees of the federal government who work directly with the above.

It seems to me that the nearly $100 million these clowns are making would be better spent on debt reduction. Furthermore, failure to properly balance the federal budget and eliminate the federal debt should have financial consequences. So what say none of these people gets paid a dime until the debt is paid off? Seems to me if you took away this $100 million and put it towards the debt, they'd find a way to balance the budget (including paying off the debt) in a big hurry.

RWR