I heard Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson on a local talk show this morning at around 6:00, talking about his plan to cut the federal budget by $1.4 trillion over the next ten years just by addressing issues that fall under his Senate sub-committee (Oversight of Goverment Management and the Federal Workforce). It includes $248 billion from attrition of 10% of the federal workforce from retirement; $133 billion from requiring federal employees to match the government's contribution to their defined benefit plan; $50 billion from eliminating bonuses to federal government management personnel; and all the way down to $115 million for reducing the size of the government's limousine fleet. It's freaking brilliant, not least because it addresses the fundamental philosophical issue -- that we have a bloated governing class living high on the hog on the nickels and dimes paid in taxes by the rest of us, who usually don't have it so good. The whole plan is here.
All of which begs the question, however: why do we have people getting paid bonuses and riding in limousines when we have to borrow from freaking China to pay for them?
