The people should control congress' salaries.

Whereas Congress has imposed an unnecessary sequester upon the country which imposes harsh financial cuts on every aspect of government but their own, and

Whereas Congress continues to exempt their own salaries and benefits from any and all penalties and, in fact, continues to raise its own salary and benefits whilst eliminating other valuable government jobs, such as teachers, fire fighters, and police, among others, insisting that clerks and others take furlough days without pay which amounts to a de facto pay cut of 20%, and

Whereas Congress enjoys, in addition, reduced costs for gasoline, transportation and other perquisites not available to others in the government's employ, and

Whereas Congress has cut its working hours during the crisis without also cutting its pay

We the People declare that Congress should no longer have the privilege of raising their own salaries, so we shall establish a law by which Congress shall receive no raises or perquisites except by majority vote of the people, and that they will suffer the same penalties as those they impose upon their fellow government employees, so that, if they should vote to cut pay for any other government employee, they shall suffer the same percentage of cut to their own salaries, and that when they impose payless furloughs upon any other government workers, the same pro rated pay cuts will be applied to their own days off.

And we so establish such rules in order that Congress shall better understand the hardships they impose upon others, and so they shall share the penalties they impose upon their fellow government employees.