To: The United States House of Representatives and The United States Senate
No budget deal? No salaries for senators or representatives.
U.S. Senators and Representatives should not be able to collect their salaries if they can't pass a bipartisan budget before the November elections. One that includes a deficit reduction plan with both sensible cuts and revenue increases. Country before politics.
Why is this important?
I find it extremely troubling that key government programs we depend on (ranging from Medicare to defense to homeland security) will be eviscerated if our Representatives and Senators can’t come to terms on a budget solution. As currently structured, these automatic budget cuts would have a devastating impact on many parts of the economy and put our vulnerable citizens and our nation’s security at-risk. Seriously...devastating in a way that few people realize. But rest assured, while children may go hungry, elderly patients may be turned away by doctors, and our nation’s security is threatened, lawmakers were careful to shield their own salaries from any cuts, should they fail to reach a compromise. They can completely fail at the very job we are paying them to do, drive our country over a cliff and still keep 100% of their taxpayer-funded pay (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/15/us/politics/white-house-report-details-effects-of-automatic-budget-cuts.html?hp). Outrageous. Any lawmaker who is unwilling to negotiate in good faith and make bipartisan compromises to produce a responsible, reasonable and timely budget (and keep us from going over the cliff), needs to be sent home. At least they should have the decency to refuse their pay until they solve this significant problem. Country before party.