Perry wants to cut their pay and send them home
By Norman Leahy | Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 | PoliticsTexas Gov. Rick Perry channels the forgotten Republican Revolution with his proposal to reinvent official Washington.
Perry doesn’t call it reinvention, though. It’s “Uproot and Overhaul Washington,” which is much more vivid. On his list are such items as cutting congressional salaries and spending on staff (and making that body part-time). He would term limit federal judges, end baseline budgeting, require a two-thirds majority vote to increase taxes and a great deal more.
It’s a mash-up of Gingrichisms from 1994, the 1996 Lamar Alexander presidential campaign and modern tea party goodness.
The idea of reducing Congress to the part-time branch it once was hasn’t sat well with Steny Hoyer, and it will certainly get the clucking tongue treatment from the political class.
However, this is the kind of stuff that gets some conservatives’ blood flowing. Will it help the Perry campaign? We shall see.
But for those who want a quicker, cheaper and even greener approach to making Congress part-time? Ban air conditioning. DC would be a ghost town for about half the year.
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About the author
Norm Leahy has written about Virginia and national politics online since 2002, beginning with One Man's Trash (OMT), and continuing through Bacon's Rebellion (both the blog and the e-zine), Sic Semper Tyrannis, NBC12's Decision Virginia, Richmond.com and Tertium Quids. He is the chief blogger at "The Score" and a producer of "The Score" radio show as well as being a Washington Post contributor.
Comments
6 Responses to "Perry wants to cut their pay and send them home"
I could support a part time Congress and ending baseline budgeting. Term limiting judges is a bad idea as justice should never be subject to the whims of politics.
I agree with SR VA MWC. We shouldn’t forget that a pivotal argument for our own revolution was whether judges should enjoy their privileges quamdiu bene se gesserint, or durante bene placito. When Massachusettensians perceived the Coercive Acts to advocate the latter, they had more ammunition for revolt.
I wonder if anyone would actually advocate doubling or trebling the number of Representatives, and reducing their staff and salaries. 435 needn’t be set in stone.
Frankly, the buffoonery of the slate of candidates in the republican party should be a real concern to every american. Today it’s Perry, yesterday it was Cain, the day before it was Bachman. Even Romney has been pulled so far to the right that he doesn’t recognize his own positions from his former life as a Governor and a CEO. I thought the republican led House of Representatives had already done enough to damage our standing in the world with their behavior during the debt extension debacle, but every day this campaign goes on, with a new revelation or period of silence, the embarrassment increases. Is the Party really this desperate that it will allow this circus to continue?
And Barry and the democrats raised taxes to 150%, took over all the evil companies. and all the people now worked for the government. And all of the peasants rejoiced in their poverty and lived happily ever after.
Back in the real world,
40 percent
Perhaps people are upset about the current Depression.
Even the Chinese Communists say that the US Federal Government is SPENDING too much money.
It is a debt problem.
Vote Match helps you decide how to vote in the 2012 Republican primaries by comparing and matching your views with each candidate’s policies.
I came up with Ron Paul.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/republicans/8876878/How-should-I-vote-in-the-Republican-Primaries-2012.html
He aired a similar idea in Texas.. did govt shrink of grow while he has been in office?
[...] Mr. Perry doesn’t go far enough with his cut congressional pay and send them home [...]
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