Government Money Vs. National Debt

Let's number crunch together for a minute. Suppose we were to enable a pay reduction for every member of the Federal and State government wherein this pay reduction is applied IN FULL to the National Debt. Here's how the numbers break down in this hypothetical situation, the reduction per individual amounting to a measly ONE PERCENT of their yearly salary.

President: Makes $450,000 / year --$4500--

Vice President: Makes $198,600 / year --$1986--

Former Presidents (x3): $150,000 / year --$1500--

Former First Ladies (x2): $20,000 / year --$200--

Presidential Cabinet Member(x15): $171,900 / year --$1719--

Subtotal: $37171

Speaker of the House: $198,600 / year --$1986--

President Pro Tempore: $171,900 / year --$1719--

Senate/House majority/minority leaders(x2): $171,900 / year --$1719--

Asst. Maj/Min Leaders(x2): $154,700 / year --$1547--

Subtotal: $10237

Chief Justice Supreme Court: $192,600 / --$1926--

Associate Justice(x8): $184,000 / --$1840--

Subtotal: $16646

I live in North Carolina, so let's consider only the Senators and members of the House of Representatives for my state.

Senator (x2): $154,700 / year --$1547--

House Representatives (x13): $154,700 / year --$1547--

Subtotal: $23205

Let's say that this ONE PERCENT of their wages was diverted immediately into the national debt.

This would provide a relief of: 87,259 dollars.

And that's just for one state, and the tip of the iceburg in relation to the members of government who make far too much yet contribute far too little in ACTUAL improvement of the country, or insurance of it's future.

Let's say that every other state is set up with the same number of districts and senators as North Carolina. This means 98 other senators and 637 house members, so let's add another $1,137,045 to this. This brings the available national deficit relief up to a staggering:

$1,224,304

Now I realize that the national debt is currently sitting at somewhere around nine TRILLION dollars, but if we trickled this down through every form of government, there would be a psychological effect to accompany this enforced pay cut. Government officials who are responsible for pushing programs which will only end up costing the country money will start becoming more frugal, thus lowering the amount of debt the country is creating. Just like a pay cut for a normal, blue collar worker, those who make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year will tighten their expenses, and those who do not will be outed as part of the problem.

Instead of rewarding the government for raising our overall obligation and debt, why don't we penalize them? Let them take a one percent penalty for each and every single year we retain a debt, cumulatively speaking. What I mean is, impose this pay cut in 2008. Come 2009 if we still have a debt, raise the cut to 2%. Then 3%. See how fast things change then!