Congressional pay cuts.
That’s what Ellabell resident Greg Purcell is asking for in a petition he created using the new “We the people” program through www.whitehouse.gov.
“I, like everyone else, am just completely frustrated with the entire government,” Purcell said. “I don’t care whether you have an R or a D after your name, to watch these people stand up and say ‘we’ve got to cut this and that and shut down the government,’ it just occurred to me we don’t have any leadership anymore.”
Purcell said this led him to create the petition, and that if his congressman, 1st District Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., would choose to take a pay cut, it would show leadership.
Purcell used Delaware Gov. Jack Markell as an example.
“Jack Markell said he was going to have to cut state workers’ pay by 8 percent (in 2009),” Purcell said. “But then he said ‘I’m cutting my own pay 20 percent’ and to me that’s leadership.”
Purcell said he has not attempted to contact Kingston because he doesn’t feel it is a local problem. He also said he feels it would be a waste of time.
“The problem is not specifically a local problem, it’s more of a national problem and Kingston is part of that problem,” Purcell said. “It’s gotten to the point where both parties are more interested in what’s in the best interest of the party and not the people.”
Kingston was unable to be reached by presstime.
To view the petition, visit wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition and search “cut congressional and staff pay and benefits asking average americans take massive cuts services.”
Read more in the Sept. 28 edition of the News.