Probably Can't Count on Billy Long to Cut His Congressional Staff to Save Tax Dollars

The Springfield News-Leader has an opinion piece expressing the need for Congressmen to cut the budgets of their Congressional staffs. Obviously every dime in budget cuts count. John Boehner has told Congress to cut their staff budgets by five percent, but obviously this cut could be deeper.

But if previous spending is any indication, that is going to be hard for some big spenders.

We have no figures for Billy Long, since he just took office to represent the 7th District this year, but his predecessor, Republican Roy Blunt, was among the top spenders at nearly $1.11 million. Democrat Ike Skelton, who lost his bid for re-election to represent the 4th District, was at the top, spending nearly $1.17 million. The thriftiest was Republican Blaine Leutkemeyer of the 9th District, spending only $875,084.

Of course when it comes to Billy Long, he needs all the staff members he can get. It's a tough job being around Billy Long, and it's probably driving many on his staff to hit the bars way before happy hour.

Here's the main reason Long needs to maximize his staff. Billy Long will spend nearly every dime on staff member he can just to shield the new Congressman from tough questions and to ensure environments where they can control the questions and coach Congressman Long on the answers. Just ask Jim Lee. To push this further, Randy Turner learned from a very reliable source, Long won't be hosting public town hall meetings. Rather he will play it safe only offering telephone town halls.

Don't take my word for it. Here's the goofiest of his staff members in action. Watch Curtis in action helping Long out of a tough question that Long obviously isn't comfortable with: