Politicians should take pay cuts, too

I have a solution for the tremendous deficit that Illinois faces in the coming year. Cut all politicians' salaries in half. The governor makes $177,000 a year. Now his salary would be $89,000.

The Democrats (and the few Republicans) in the Illinois House and Senate would have their commensurate salaries also divided in half. Reporters, who have obviously never run a business, always ask a candidate where he/she would cut spending. That would be a start.

Reporters act like state expenditures are like manna from heaven, but in reality every dollar spent by the state is taken from some hardworking individual. Of course, we can exclude the above politicians, as we know most have never held real job.

There will be some members of the legislature who really work and they would be hurt by the salary reduction, but so are the people laid off or let go because their company closed its doors. Maybe the politicians would wake up to the fact that tax and spend is not infinite.

Bob Lowth

Arlington Heights