walrus51

Given Speaker John Boehner’s recent attacks on the executive office regarding federal budget cuts he believes are appropriate and necessary to bring Federal spending under control, I thought I would take a look at the most recent Federal budget to see what all of the commotion is about.

It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that trying to read and/or understand the Federal budget is an almost impossible task.

I was able to find some detail that shows the budget for “Salaries and Expenses of the House of Representatives” is $1.25 Billon. Plus an additional $574 Million for “Members’ representational allowances, including Members “clerk hire, official expenses, and official mail.” Plus, hundreds of millions of additional dollars to fund: various committees; salaries and expenses of ‘officers and employees’; allowances and expenses; joint items; and more.

Although determining the full cost allocated to support the expenses of having an elected House of Representatives seems to be almost impossible, it was also not clear what effect – if any – sequestration might have on the members of Congress and their staffs.

We’ve certainly heard dire predictions of negative consequences regarding loss of services due to cuts to the FAA; Homeland Security; and Department of Defense.

If funding to support the bureaucracy of our elected officials in the House of Representatives and the Senate were interrupted and all of the elected officials and employees of the legislative branch were furloughed for a week, 2 weeks, even a month — would there be any negative consequences to our society?

If we need to incur some immediate spending curtailments, I say, let’s furlough the legislative branch! Let’s send Speaker Boehner home to Ohio for a month with no salary, no benefits and no staff. When he comes back in April, maybe he will be ready to talk Turkey!