Today’s Downsizer Dispatch . . .
Please share with concerned friends . . .
Subject: How you can make your Congresspersons reduce the deficit
Why does Congress spend so much of your money and run such large deficits?
Because they can.
They pay no price for doing so. It isn’t their money.
Worse still, the more of your money Congress spends, the more powerful members of Congress become. They can use your money to hand-out favors, gain power, win influence, and create lucrative jobs for themselves as lobbyists and corporate directors after they retire.
They have EVERY INCENTIVE to spend as much of your money as possible, and NO INCENTIVE TO NOT SPEND IT.
To change Congressional behavior we must change these incentives.
H.R. 500 is a great first step to do just that. And H.R. 500 has just picked up a 9th sponsor: Representative Virgil Goode of Virginia.
H.R. 500 would cut Congressional pay for any year in which Congress runs a deficit, excluding money borrowed to fund foreign conflicts.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the discretionary portion of the deficit will increase by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years. This is what’s at stake . . .
$1.2 trillion!
If Congress had to pay a PERSONAL cost for spending that $1.2 trillion they would be much less likely to do so.
Would they raise your taxes to close the deficit and avoid the paycut? Possibly, but then they would also pay a personal cost, risking retaliation at the polls. It would be very obvious to the entire country that they were raising YOUR taxes to protect THEIR pay.
Besides, increased taxes don’t necessarily mean increased revenue for the government. Tax increases that retard economic growth can actually reduce government revenues, and Congress knows this.
The only sure way for Congress to avoid a paycut under H.R. 500 is to eliminate the deficit!
How can you get your Congress persons to sponsor and pass H.R. 500. Simple. You must make them pay a PERSONAL cost for NOT SPONSORING IT. You can do this by bombarding them with requests to sponsor the bill, until they say “uncle.”
Accomplishing this involves two things
:1. Use our Congressional Contact System to send a message to your Representative and Senators.
2. Forward this message to friends and ask them to do the same.
We hope you will decide to participate. Keep reading below my signature for more information on how to reverse the cancrous growth of the federal government.
Jim Babka
President
DownsizeDC.org
The following information is only for those who are really serious about Downsizing the federal government and are interested in doing more than send a message. We do not advise you forward this material to friends.
Update on the “One Subject at a Time Act”
We had a good conference call with our attorney’s yesterday. We reviewed a draft of the “One Subject at a Time Act” (OSTA)
If you’re new to this list, OSTA is a piece of legislation drafted by DownsizeDC.org, that would prevent Congress from combining bills with unrelated subjects into one piece of legislation.
Multi-subject bills are one of the main ways Congressional leaders make government grow. Combining unrelated legislation enables Congressional leaders to pass bills most members of Congress don’t want by combining them with other bills that members are afraid to vote against.
We’re very close to being able to launch OSTA. With your help we’ll soon be able to start badgering Congress to pass this needed reform. The key thing we still need is increased financial support.
We have set a goal of having $7,500 in monthly credit card pledges before we launch OSTA. We now have $6,709 in monthly credit pledges. We are very close to our goal — all we need is another $791. And anyone who starts a monthly credit card pledge will be listed on the OSTA website as a sponsor of this important legislation (unless you choose not to be listed).
264 monthly pledges of a dime a day ($3 a month) would do it, or . . .
158 pledges of 17 cents a day ($5 a month), or . . .
79 pledges of 33 cents a day ($10 a month), or . . .
32 pledges of 83 cents a day ($25 a month), or . . .
16 pledges of $1.67 a day ($50 a month)
Yes, just 16 people could do it! And if just half of our current pledgers increased their pledges by $4 per month, we’d achieve the goal.
You can start a monthly pledge or make a one-time contribution HERE.
Thank you for being a DC Downsizer!