In USA Today, Steve Deace has a satiric column thanking the people most responsible for cutting his paycheck 5% in 2013. He writes:

“After all, who’s more qualified to talk about shared sacrifice than those who can vote themselves pay raises whenever they want, pass laws they don’t have to subject themselves to and take vacations all over the world that are bought and paid for by others?”

Working his way up the ladder, Deace starts by naming the Republican majority leadership in the U.S. Congress. He notes that Boehner and Co. cleverly named the bill they sponsored the Tax Relief Act of 2012, which was responsible for deleting 5% of his paycheck.

Next, Deace calls out Senator Harry Reid for not passing a budget in four years and blaming everyone but himself. Deace moves on to his home state Republican Governor, Terry Branstad, who is serving his fifth consecutive term. As Deace says:

“Blessedly, he’s already grown my state government bigger than either of his Democrat predecessors while promising us he would grow personal income by 25%. Since my personal income is down 5% that means I still have a lot to look forward to!”

Finally, of course, Barack Obama comes into the picture.

Last, but certainly not least, is President Obama. All the “solutions” he’s presented to our various problems helped grow government more in four years than his big government predecessor accomplished in eight. The warm fuzzy my children will experience when I tell them we’re doing less as a family this year so Obama can do even more, promises to be a Kodak moment. Besides, as loyal subjects of the crown, my children need to realize that we work hard so he doesn’t have to. They can enjoy their family vacation this year vicariously through all the vacations the first family will be taking instead.

Deace concludes:

With government doing more to us…err…I mean for us than ever before, I have a suggestion. Not a complaint, mind you, but a humble suggestion for our benevolent ruling class. To avoid offending anybody, and to make sure there’s truth in advertising, how about we change our national motto from ‘In God We Trust’ to ‘Thank you, sir, may I have another?’