The direct cost of Congress

Common Sense thought it might be interesting to take a more detailed look at what Congress, our employees, actually cost.  Now Congress is the Legislative branch.  It includes both the Congress proper and a number of supporting agencies like the Congressional Budget Office and the Library of Congress.  That said the overwhelming bulk of Legislative spending is Congress proper.  It turns out that the GAO and Treasury issue Financial Statements of the U.S. Government, usually in the December following the close of the federal fiscal year, which occurs September 30.  These detail actual spending as opposed to budget by various parts of the Federal Government including, happily for our purposes, the Legislative branch.

So Common Sense took a look and compiled the data.

To put this into some kind of perspective, the 1997 annualized CPI was 160.  In 2010 it was 218.  So in 13 years the CPI, that's a good measure of what you and I had to spend rose by a factor of 1.4.  On the other hand the cost of Congress increased by a factor of 2.5!

As the discussion of the national debt, controlling spending, and taxes goes forward Common Sense thinks that Congress should get a grip spending for itself.