Some of the elected “public servants” may want to take a hint from what some school administrators, teachers and private sector folks are doing: compelled to take pay and retirement benefit cuts or “freezes” and learning to live with less.

This article, “Senator proposes cuts to federal annuity benefits,” from http://www.governmentexecutive.com/ shows that this legislator’s sponsored bill “would eliminate the pension portion of the Federal Employees Retirement System for all new government hires beginning in 2013.” Definitely a step in the direction of fiscal responsibility, it would show more meaning if it applied to current elected “public servants.”

Here is a report about how the current retirement plan for members of the U.S. legislature. Pennsylvania’s retirement plan for legislators is also a cushy one; according to a really well written article from The Times-Tribune in Scranton, “What it means essentially is that in most cases a lawmaker elected at age 30, who serves 20 years and leaves office at 50, qualifies for a pension of 65 percent of his or her salary or $50,900 a year based on current salary, Mr. Dreyfuss explained.” Read more about the “I got mine” culture in politics: “Legislature pay raise – same old issue with a new twist”  and “Testimony on reducing the size of the legislature.”

And here is a column from a writer at The Guardian in Great Britain about the “I got mine” culture; we think it is related.