Congressional Personal Sacrifice

Businesses and individuals, especially those that are being supported by tax-payer funded bail-out funds, are being asked to make cuts in spending and to limit salaries and bonuses. Our leaders in government, as servants of the public, and most of whom have significant external sources of income, by making the following gestures, show that they share equally in the sacrifice being called for in this time of hardship and uncertainty.

We therefore petition for the following:

(1) that the President, the Vice President, all members of the Senate, and both house majority and minority leaders voluntarily donate their entire annual salaries, minus one dollar, to the United States Treasury.*

(2) We further petition that other than the President, Vice-President, or Secretary of State, and only when specifically traveling abroad on official business, that all members of the federal legislative and executive government substitute government provided air travel with regular commercial coach-class flights.

* [
Salaries:
President: $400,000 / Vice-President: 208,100 / Senator: $169,300 House Leaders: $180,100;
Total annual donation: $17,898,197
]