Lawmakers Try to Pay Down the National Debt, $200 at a Time
Dec. 24, 2010 -- On his first day in the House of Representatives in 2007, Rep. Timothy Walz, D-Minn., sat down with his wife and staff and decided to return a portion of his congressional salary to the United States in an effort to reduce the public debt.
Walz, of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, is among a handful of congressmen who have chosen to freeze their salaries and donate the rest to the deficit.
"It's a token measure, but it's something I can do," he said.
How small a token?
Walz chose to keep his salary the same as his predecessor's, Republican incumbent Gil Gutknecht, whom he defeated in 2006. Walz donated approximately $6,588 to the deficit between January and September 2010, according to the House's Statement of Disbursement, a quarterly public report containing all official receipts and expenditures for members of the House of Representatives.
Reps. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., and Frank Lobiondo, R-N.Y., also disclosed that they'd donated their congressional pay increases to the debt.
"When a pay increase is approved, he personally writes a check to return the money and specifically directs the U.S. Treasury Department to use it to pay down the public debt," Bachus spokesman Tim Johnson said. Bachus also requests that his unspent office funds go toward the national debt rather than to other congressional spending. In the fiscal year 2009, Bachus' office expenses came in about $200 underbudget, money he turned over to the U.S. Treasury Department for debt reduction. Bachus' member allowance was $1,516,638 in 2010.
Noble as these gestures look, these donated sums are too small to have much of an impact on the burgeoning deficit (every American has a $44,660.68 share in the nation's debt), and do not represent a huge chunk of a congressional salary, said Allyson Chadwick, who spent 16 years working with various members of Congress.
House members earn $174,000 a year. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., makes $223,500 and Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, makes $193,400. Each year members receive an automatic cost-of-living raise.
"The view of congressman Bachus is that at a time when families have to tighten their belts and watch their spending, Congress must as well," Johnson said.
