Yesterday the unthinkable happened…a member of Congress put their money where their mouth is. That's right, not YOUR money, their money. Senator Rand Paul took the $500,000 in savings he had from running a frugal, cost-efficient office and returned it to the treasury.
Sen. Rand Paul cut a six-figure check to the U.S. Treasury on Wednesday in an effort to do his part to put a tiny chip in the federal debt.The Kentucky Republican returned $600,000 in funds he saved from his Senate office budget in the last year, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.
“It’s the only budget I control,” Paul said at a news conference in Louisville. “It’s not enough, but it’s a start.”
The $600,000 — about 17 percent of his 3.5 million office budget — is on top of another $500,000 Paul returned to the Treasury last year, according to CNN. Paul said the total unspent money he’s returned to the federal government amounts to $1.1 million.
“We watch every purchase,” Paul said. “We watch what computers we buy, what paper we buy, the ink cartridges. We treat the money like it’s our money, or your money, and we look at every expenditure.”
The senator, a Tea Party favorite, noted, “We are frugal from top to bottom.”
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Needless to say, this did nothing but strengthen Glenn's positive opinion of Rand Paul and his future chances of leadership in the White House.
"Rand Paul could win," Glenn said this morning. "Did you see what he did yesterday? He went found $500,000 of savings in his office. He went through his budget, line by line of his office. Every Senator gets $2 million dollars, and he returned $500,000 to the treasury and said 'every single Senator and every single Congressman should go line by line and cut your spending. Think how much money we could save with 100 Senators and all the Congressmen.' And then he said, 'every single leader in government office should do the same, and we should incentivize them. We should say if you can save $1 million dollars, you're going to find a raise at this amount.' We should reward people that do this. Now there's thinking that makes sense."