The House voted to extend Secret Service protection to former presidents and their wives. With the looming fiscal cliff and across-the-board budget cuts threatened it seems that this is a rather bold move by our representatives, Tea Party members or not. I find it interesting that in all this talk of raising taxes and cutting programs there is never a word about cuts to the actual infrastructure of our government. Our Senators and Representatives have a very nice benefit package and pension plan, which very few of us are so lucky to have. If we work for a company that offers a health insurance plan we usually pay a portion of the cost and in my case it happens to be about a third of the cost. I also have the option of saving with a 401(k) plan but that is rather vulnerable and dependent on the markets, unlike the guaranteed plan of our Senators and Representatives. Perhaps our congressmen and women should have the same options that the rest of us have. That is they can shop for health insurance like the rest of us and when their 401(k) tanks because the market crashes they can get a job as a WalMart greeter and hope Social Security and Medicare will help ends meet. This might inspire them to do their job and work together to find solutions. In any case it seems that the taxpayers cannot really afford to extend Secret Service protection to millionaire former presidents or many other perks that these public servants have voted for themselves. Whether libral or conservative, Democrat, Republican, Tea Party, socialist, pro-life or pro-choice, we the people need to stand together and question the inner workings of our government at all levels.

Valerie Henderson

Bellingham