Congress' personal paychecks cost the American taxpayer $93,090,000. Each member of the House received an average of $1.3 million for "official" expenses (Members Representational Allowance), each member of the Senate received an average of $3.2 million for "official" expenses (Senators Official Personnel and Office Expense Account) in 2012. This totals more than $1.63 billion dollars to run a Congress which earned the lowest approval rate since tracking began.
Cut the Congress' pay in half. This would still give them a salary of more than two times the national average. Cut the official expense accounts (MRA and SOPOEA) for the House and Senate in half. These two cuts more than pay for the $500 million price tag of proposed gun law reform and violent crime prevention/research.