Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown has come up with a suggestion, followed up by a legislative proposal, that Congress demonstrate “shared sacrifice” by agreeing to cut their salaries and delay their pension benefits to age 66, as the ordinary citizen must wait to that age to collect Social Security.
Right now, if a member of Congress has served five years, he is entitled to a pension at age 62, and if he has served 20 years, he can collect at age 50, and if 25 years, can collect at any age.
Since the members of Congress earn $174,000 per year and receive a lot of perks, and in most cases are independently wealthy, this sounds like a great idea, as showing Congress understands what Americans are going through would help bring respect for Congress back to a higher level than the present 12 percent, an all time high disapproval level.
It is interesting that we find many Democrats have pushed such an idea, and that conservative Republicans seem opposed!
But should that be surprising? After all, it is conservatives who wish to protect the wealthy and corporations from paying their fair share of taxes, and love to talk about “class warfare”!