Where have you gone, Paddy C?

I’m getting a little sick… no, not a little…. VERY sick of all the discussion about cuts to benefits and no tax increases for the wealthy and yada yada yada. Why is it that not ONE congressman or senator has the balls to stand up and say “WE need to give something back”?

My call in starting to fix the economy is an immediate 10% to 15% rollback of salaries to all elected officials. It won’t kill them. Most of them won’t even feel it. They’ll make it up on speaking fees and book deals.

Next, no more getting paid once you leave office. Once you’re done doing you’re job, you’re done collecting a salary. That’s how it works in the real world. Unless they promise to fork over to the general coffers everything they ever make because of who they are and what they have done... (All those speaking fees and book deals)… in which case they will probably not burden us with their tiresome rhetoric and 20/20 hindsight anymore.

You want to have a bodyguard? Pay for it. No more Secret Servicemen for retired politicians. And their families!

Immediately, every public official starts paying into the social security system and getting the same benefits as the rest of us. It’s what the Constitution calls for! No elected officials shall make any law that doesn’t apply to them as it does to everyone else (or some such wording). Why do we allow them to lord this over us when they have no personal stake in the outcome? Conflict of interest you say? The only conflict of interest I see is that they have forgotten they are “Public SERVANTS”! e

Now, as I enter the tenth month of trying to renegotiate my mortgage, stand with me and yell, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!” Paddy Chayevsky, where are you?