Allen's Pay Day Proposals
At the Conservative Political Action Convention, '08 potential/Sen. George Allen (R-VA) announced his "Paycheck Penalty" bill, which would hold Congressional members' bi-weekly paychecks until they pass the yearly budget.
So here's one for the trivia buffs: When was the last time Congress passed a budget on time, by October 1? As Allen spokesperson John Reid pointed out, many state legislatures stay up until the wee hours of the morning to pass their budgets, so why shouldn't Congress do the same?
For example, take FY '04: A Senator earned about $160K, or $6.1K a paycheck every two weeks, and the budget wasn't passed until mid January '04 (about 16 weeks late), then the Feds would have held onto $48K until January.
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around, does it make a sound? If a U.S. Senator misses a paycheck and (s)he is independently wealthy, does anyone notice? Says Reid: "Surely every U.S. senator would notice that they didn't have that money coming in. Whether or not they could make a mortgage payment varies from person to person."
We weren't the only ones curious about the proposed bill. In a press release last week, VA Sen '06 candidate Harris Miller (D) asked Allen to return part of his pay he received in the Senate when the budget was overdue, totaling about $229K by their calculations. (By contrast, the American Conservative Union's David Keene loves the proposal. )
That's a political shot, of course, but it raises a question: if Allen really wanted to get senators' attention, shouldn't he have proposed actually docking their pay? Or offered to dock his own pay?
His proposal now seems a bit toothless...which makes it seem a bit more gambit-ish than Team Allen might want. [Shira R. Toeplitz]
Just to make a very serious point, George Allen should not be worrying about giving PART of his salary back. He better be out campaigning for Harris Miller to get the Democratic nomination.
If Webb gets the nomination I'm afraid Allen will have to give up his entire salary. What worries me is that Jim Webb plays the strongest to Allen's weakest support.
It's flimflam.
Budgets are nice to have, but what really needs to be in place by Oct 1 is the appropriations. The senator knows that, but hopes you won't notice.
Heard Miller on WTOP -- he said instead of a balanced budget amendment, George Allen should have said, "Just say no." It'll be interesting to see how Allen responds to a high-tech business guy talking tough on the issues where he's weakest -- fiscal responsibility.