WILL CONGRESS CUT ITSELF?

When lawmakers propose spending cuts, they rarely float ideas that would affect them personally. But considering the severity of the problems we face, Congress can no longer exempt itself from the pain of cut backs.

However, not surprisingly, Republicans and Democrats don’t agree on where these cuts should focus. Recently, House and Senate Committees were required to submit recommendations to the supercommittee. Included in these is the House Administration Committee – the Committee that runs House operations.

The Washington Post reports:

In mid-October, House Administration Republicans wrote to the supercommittee urging that it cut funding not for Congress itself but for an entity under its purview — the Election Assistance Commission.

“The Election Assistance Commission has fulfilled its function and is now a perfect example of unnecessary and wasteful spending,” they wrote to the supercommittee.

Committee Democrats strongly disagree with the majority’s recommendation, arguing that closing the EAC would shift its responsibilities — including certifying voting machines — to what they call “the increasingly deadlocked and incapacitated” Federal Election Commission.

Instead, Democrats offered four cost-cutting suggestions of their own to the supercommittee: saving energy in Hill buildings through steps such as “adjusting corridor lighting levels and ambient temperatures overnight”; cutting computing costs by using new technology to manage constituent communications; raising the fees that applicants pay to the Library of Congress’s Copyright Office; and reducing printing at executive branch agencies that could be done by the Government Printing Office.

This is simply another example of parties talking past each other as millions of Americans remain out of work. Taxpayers pony up $107.8 million per week on Congress – surely members of both parties can agree on something to cut in there.

DID YOU GET YOUR MONEY’S WORTH FROM CONGRESS LAST WEEK?

The Senate was in session last week, but the House was back home for a constituent work week.

The Senate held a series of votes on legislation aimed at creating jobs. All were voted down. On Thursday, the Senate blocked a $35 billion spending bill that had originally been part of President Obama’s larger jobs package. (The chamber also voted down a GOP jobs package on Thursday.)

There was one success last week: the Senate voted Friday to cut agriculture subsidies for farmers that earn more than $1 million.

The House will be back in session this week, but the Senate will be out.

For more on what Congress did last week, see below.

What you paid
Last week taxpayers spent roughly $107.8 million on Congress.

Salaries of Members of Congress and their allowances/week:

Speaker of the House: $223,500/52 = $4,299
House and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders: ($193,400/52) x 4 = $14,877
Other Representatives and Senators: ($174,000/52) x 530 = $1,773,462

Average budget for Members of Congress: ($1,600,000/52) x 535 = $16,461,538

Non-salary money allocated for Congress: $4.656 billion/52 = $89,538,462

What you got
As mentioned above, the House was not in session last week.

In addition to the votes mentioned above, the Senate confirmed Cathy Bissoon and Robert David Mariani to be U.S. District court judges; Heather A. Higginbottom to be Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget; and John Edgar Bryson to be Secretary of Commerce.