California passed a vindictive little bill designed to limit elected representatives' salaries. I'd say it was fiscally prudent, but it really won't make a difference in the long run. Still, I suppose I should give us credit, since for my entire voting history we've done nothing but vote for bond after bond to pay for program after program.
I think the bill requires that the budget be in place or something--we have a hard time actually getting budgets out, because we have so many massively powerful special interest groups to feed: teachers, other government employees, illegal immigrants, etc. (And I have no idea how illegal immigrants get to be a powerful special interest group but, here we are.)
A better idea, however, would be for the politicians to only be able to collect their salaries from what was leftover in the budget. Run a deficit? No money that year. Hell, we should have them give money back at that point. Sell your homes and cars, people. Send your kids to public school. You're on a budget this year.
They'd find a way to screw it up, of course.
They always do.
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I'm not taking the bait.
ReplyDelete(not that I own the concept of 'modest' or 'immodest' proposals, that honor belongs to a certain long deceased Dublin born satirist)
And, excellent idea, but yes, they'd cook the books something fierce to make deficits vanish if they actually got paid only from a surplus.