Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, signed a letter Thursday urging the members of the debt supercommittee to consider congressional pay cuts as the 12-member committee works to create a deficit-reduction plan by the November 23rd deadline. The debt supercommittee has been charged with finding $1.2 trillion to cut from the federal deficit over the next ten years.
Paul has been highly critical of the debt supercommittee’s progress in recent interviews. In an appearance on CNBC’s “The Kudlow Report” with Larry Kudlow Wednesday, Paul expressed his disappointment with the Republicans on the debt supercommittee. “If Republicans don’t take a harder stance in supercommittee negotiations, President Barack Obama will win reelection,” Paul told Kudlow. “If the Republicans capitulate there will be a punishment, and I don’t think there will be any changes in the executive branch,” Paul added.
Paul, and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, sent a letter to the 12 members of the debt supercommittee asking them consider congressional pay cuts as part of their plan to reduce the federal deficit. “As the Super Committee pursues its mandate to reduce the budget deficit by at least $1.5 trillion, we urge you to include in your final deal significant savings from reductions to Member of Congress compensation,” the letter reads. The letter states that a “five percent cut to the $174,000 Member salary would save $50 million over a ten year window, while a ten percent cut would save $100 million.”
“Congressman Paul has always voted against congressional pay raises, and he not does participate in the lucrative pension program,” Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee Chairman Jesse Benton said in response to the Texas Congressman’s decision to sign the letter to the debt supercommittee. “Ron Paul understands that Washington has to tighten its belt just like the rest of America, which is why as President, he plans to take a salary of $39,336, which is approximately equal to the median personal income of the American worker,” Benton added in a press release.
The letter reveals that Members of Congress “receive salaries that are 3.4 times higher than the average full-time wage.”
