Our congressman promised us that he would not take a pay raise until the federal budget was balanced and the minimum wage was increased. Last month, Rep. Tim Walz kept his promise.
As other members of Congress voted themselves a $4,130 pay raise, Rep. Walz voted against it. Instead of accepting it like almost everyone else, he returned it to the U.S. Treasury to help pay down our astronomically high national debt. Granted this is a pretty small drop in a pretty big bucket, but every little bit helps and Rep. Walz is to be commended for leading by example.
In addition, last week, our congressman announced that he'd finished 2007 with more than $100,000 left unspent in his office budget that will be returned to the treasury as well.
Some have questioned Walz's commitment to fiscal discipline. But with his personal actions, he has shown that he knows how to squeeze all the value he can from the taxpayer's dime. Apparently, Walz took with him to Washington the thriftiness that he learned from spending 20 years pinching pennies as a teacher in the Mankato public school system.
