Advocacy groups call for reduction in lawmakers’ salaries

A group of tax and budget advocacy groups are recommending that the deficit-reduction supercommittee slash congressional salaries by 10 percent, saving about $100 million over 10 years.  

The five organizations — Our Generation, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, the National Taxpayers Union, the Center for Fiscal Accountability and Americans for Tax Reform — sent a letter on Thursday to all 12 members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction calling for the cut in pay as part of a larger cost-cutting measures. 

“On behalf of the millions of taxpayers the undersigned organizations represent, we request that you make significant changes in the congressional pay and pension systems as you craft legislative proposals to decrease our national debt by $1.5 trillion over the next decade,” the groups wrote.

The letter follows a July report from Our Generation and the Taxpayers Protection Alliance showing that the $174,000 annual salary of a rank-and-file lawmakers is more than three times the $50,874 earned each year by the average full-time employee.

Through the recession, lawmakers have frozen their salaries, and Senate and House offices have trimmed their budgets.

“During a weak economic recovery with high unemployment and many Americans being forced to make do with less, Congress should not continue to reward itself with extravagant salaries and benefits,” the groups wrote. 

In a similar vein, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) on Thursday touted his bill calling on lawmakers to wait until the age of 66 before receiving a pension.

“The reason I introduced my bill a few months ago ... on this shared sacrifice in terms of retirement age, is I hear lots of members of Congress, especially particularly conservative members of Congress, say we should raise the retirement age for Social Security,” he said during an interview on CNN.

“Yet a member of Congress [who] gets elected at 35 and retires at 55 can draw a pretty good pension at the age of 55 when [Social Security beneficiaries] have to wait until 66.”

Brown’s bill would require former members of Congress to wait until age 66 regardless of their years of service. 

“They should get no pension until any earlier than a Social Security beneficiary should get theirs,” Brown said.