Politician puts money where mouth is, gives money back to government

Feb 20, 2013

Politician puts money where mouth is, gives money back to government

by Matt Lacy –

While many politicians talk about the need to cut spending, one Senator is putting his money where his mouth is by returning money back to the government.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky has returned $600,000 to the U.S. Treasury that was given to him by the federal government to run his Senate office, The Courier-Journal out of Louisville reports.

Paul recently gave the tea party response to president Obama’s State of the Union address.

“The path we are on is not sustainable, but few in Congress or in this administration seem to recognize that their actions are endangering the prosperity of this great nation,” he stated. “Ronald Reagan said, government is not the answer to the problem, government is the problem.”

While members of both parties, including the president have stated the need to cut spending, the so-called cuts that will kick in as part of the sequester deal are not actually cuts at all. In actuality, each department will continue to grow, the sequester cuts simply slow the rate of growth. It would be as if a family budget was slated to increase by6 percent, but instead only increased 4 percent. While most people would not consider that to be a cut in the family budget, Washington defines that as a cut in spending.

However, the amount returned by Paul is an actual cut in his operating budget. Paul told the Journal that as a single senator in a chamber controlled by Democrats, he has no authority on his own to reduce the size of government spending, but he wants to exercise frugality over the areas he does control.

“It’s the only budget I control,” he said at news conference in Louisville. “It’s not enough, but it’s a start.”

Paul said the savings were realized by “watching every purchase,” including keeping close tabs on expenditures for “computers, paper, ink cartridges. Everything we buy.”

Over the past two years the amount he has returned has totaled $1.1 million. The paper said he was also able to achieve the savings by keeping a close watch on travel expenses.

We are frugal from top to bottom,” Paul said. “It’s not an enormous savings but the savings would add up, if purse strings were so closely watched throughout government.”

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