Personal comment by John Every little bit helps There's this crazy representative from Arizona who has the audacity to suggest her colleagues in Washington take a five percent pay cut to do their part in stemming the $14,000,000,000,000.00 federal deficit. Can you imagine the nerve? Why, our representatives have not had a pay decrease in 77 years. And just because the national economy is suffering (as so often described as the worst since the Great Depression) should this be any reason for them to sacrifice a little too? Gosh, everyone knows they are just barely squeaking by on their $174,000 annual salary, plus a posh benefit package. Recently, I read the average federal employee annual salary is $77,000, and this does not include their wonderful benefits, while the average Joe Blow's annual salary was $47,000, and has recently dropped to $41,000. And again by comparison, the national unemployment rate is reported at about 10% (some estimates are higher) while those in Washington seem immune from the threat of recession and layoffs. Why heck, the news reported that 7,000 new federal employees were hired just this month. Great work if you can get it. Could the answer be that we all should be feeding from a federal trough? …         Read the rest of this comment in the Messenger.