I've been seeing a lot of Facebook friends re-posting a canned comment comparing the pay of our elected federal officials to the military. It concludes by stating this is where the cuts should be made.
After thinking about this, I did some basic math and discovered that by reducing the salaries of the president, house and senate members down to the average military service person's $38,000 per year, it would save us approximately $75 million dollars annually. The federal debt clock reports that we accumulate 3.8 billion in debt every day, therefore cutting these salaries would save a paltry 28 minutes of debt accumulation. At this rate of reduction, it would require 17,520 equal cuts elsewhere to simply negate the annual debt accumulation.
While many Americans would share a common apathy towards politicians, simply lowering their wages would only be symbolic. In the grand scheme of our budgetary and debt crisis, it would essentially make no impact. If nothing else, it demonstrates the incredible financial hole we have dug for ourselves and how much of a behemoth our federal government has become.
True public service jobs such as non-commisioned officers in the military do make a relatively modest wage but this is exactly what makes our military so special. Most are not entering to make money but rather to serve a grander ideal. Some may utilize it for college tuition, some for advancement through the ranks, but it is essentially a sacrifice, hence the term service. Once sacrifice is removed from the equation, then motives can become questionable. This is not to say they aren't worth more pay, but as a true volunteer military, it would likely blur the service aspect of it's intent.
Elected officials are reported to be public servants as well, but most would agree today's reality is anything but that. Pay and benefit perks may provide some degree of comfort for politicians, but the rampant corruption comes from the power they have and power comes primarily from the ability to spend. Due to their experience and influence within the system, most politicians would likely garner higher paying jobs after leaving office than while they're in making it unlikely that lowering their salaries would dramatically impact our budget, debt or political system.
