Posted on 08/29/2011 6:25:05 PM PDT by SoCal SoCon
A few lawmakers have suggested in recent months that despite a $174,000 annual salary, generous health care and pensions, and perks for things like travel and mail, being one of the elite 435 ain't always what it's cracked up to be. And when you calculate the hours they put in, the pay isn't stellar either, they say.
This talk probably won't help Congress' approval rating. The federal government is the worst-rated industry in the country, viewed favorably by only 17 percent of Americans, according to a new Gallup survey.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I say give them a raise and shame them into doing better
The hours they rack up????
They are on vacation most of the time.
Do we really need a federal government?
it used to be we thought of them as “public servants”.
now, we think of them as parasites.
It should be pay based on results.....I know they wouldn’t agree to that..... Also it would cost more than 0.25 cents to print the check! LOL
Don’t like the pay, then they shouldn’t run. Easy enough. Nobody’s holding a gun to their head.
no one forces them to run for office. IMO they are WAY overpaid.
I’m all in favor of them working a lot less - like maybe a month a year.
One of the most dangerous person in the world is a hard working congressman. Each new law they pass is a restriction on our freedom.
I’d quadruple their salaries if they’d guarantee not one penny more is earned by them or their spouses, or homo boyfriends. It would be worth it. No more speaking fees or other payoffs. In fact, they should be required to stay on vacation too.
They should each take a 20% cut immediately and 25$ for the President. Same with their allowances. Right off the top.
Nice job, Mr. Moody. Last I checked, there were 535 members of Congress. Senators make the same amount of money as Representatives. Doofus.
I say the opposite. Cut their perks and privileges to the bone. Get rid of the gym, the restaurant, the gov’t-backed AMEX card, and reduce their pay to (at most) the national average.
The problem with Congresscritters and Senatebores is they get so addicted to the pomp and circumstance, not to mention assorted goodies, that come with their job that they forget what they were hired to do.
The Founding Fathers were adamantly against the idea of a professional political class and tried to arrange things so that service in government would be view, at best, as a noble but unpleasant duty — one to be fulfilled faithfully and diligently, but something that would be put aside with good cheer and relief when the time had finished.
Would you pay a baseball pitcher $174,000 if he couldn’t throw the ball over the plate?
Would you pay a babysitter $174,000 if she left your children to play in the street?
Would you pay your accountant $174,000 if he not only lost your money, but left your family hundreds of thousands of dollars in the red?
That should be 25% cut for the POTUS. I’m typing in a dark room!
That makes much more sense.
Take away all their benefits and give them a slight raise.
That way they might try to get a clue about how the sheeple have to live.
These people make millions off of backroom deals.
Come to think of it, take their benefits away and freeze their pay.
Response: That is a notable achievement for which those in government have labored mightily over the years. They lie, steal, copulate like rabbits with little boys and girls, are avaricious drunken druggies, vain, eat like hogs and babble incessantly
Breaking news! The USGS revealed today that the epicenter of the VA earthquake was determined to be in a graveyard south of Washington DC. It was caused by the Founding Fathers rolling over in their graves!
All elected officials should be paid the average wage in the US. That includes the income of those without jobs but any Government assistance is not included in the tabulation. So, if the income averages out to be $50,000 a year, that’s what they get. Not a single penny more.
They should be paid far less, be under the same health care rules we are, pay into their own retirment like we do, and live under the same laws we do.
This isn’t Soviet Russia, we don’t have party apparachiks , zampolits, or a politburo yet..
How about paying them the LOWEST wage from their districts based off their actual hours worked at the LOWEST pay rate from said districts?
Also, take out in taxes from said pay just like we get..
I say pay them twice as much for the time they are on vacation than for the time they are sitting in Capitol Hill. The less time for mischief in DC the better.
There's the problem right there. They should only be in Washington for a week twice a year. Americans would probably be willing to let them keep what they are making now just to get them the hell out of there and leave us alone.
Congressmen have no shame. If they did, they would be working in a gay whorehouse, just to rebuild their reputations.
They haven’t done anything to merit the pay they get now.
If they were the dedicated public servants,they make themselves out to be, then they should consent to work for an hourly wage at a rate most Americans are paid. Let them earn it.
The boo-hooing about how low the salaries are makes me wonder how often congresspeople start out from modest backgrounds, but somehow are millionaires when they retire or are voted out.
Their pay should be multiplied by the percentage of surplus in the budget. When there is a deficit, they have to pay us.
Most of them couldn’t make it in a law office, theirs or someone else’s. They sucked as lawyers and ran for Congress.
If it so damned bad why do they spend millions to get the job. Why do they stay until they are run off?
Steny Hoyer for example has been either a State legislator or a United States one almost from the day he graduated and passed the bar. Over 30 years in the Congress and is the most traveled Representative in the Congress. he has made a fortune at his $174,000 dollar job. Nancy Pelosi a Multi Millionaire.
Yes It’s terrible they are paid so little. /s/
And junkets. Lots of interesting “fact-finding” trips all over the world, on Air Force jets... God’s TEETH!!!
Who can ever forget San Fran Nan’s chocolate-covered birthday strawberries, courtesy of the USAF.
These hypocrites make me nauseous!
Who can ever forget San Fran Nan's chocolate-covered birthday strawberries, courtesy of the USAF.
These hypocrites make me nauseous!
I believe they’re immune from insider-trading charges —they can know ALL MANNER of inside company info, trade on that basis, make MILLIONS and it’s all legal.
That’s a huge source of income.
With all their perks? They should cut it by $100K.
“the pay isn’t stellar either, they say.”
A community organizer can make more, for goodness sake.
BS! Government isn't an industry, but they're sure doing a job on us.
ROTFLOL! Good point, fanfan!
That should havebeen funfan!
Send them home 6 months a year and that would essentially double their pay and it would lower the cost of fedzilla.
While we’re at it, toss in term limits.
I have no problem with paying them, but why don’t we let the states do it, after all, they represent us!
Then we cut out all pension rights. I don’t care if you serve for 40 years, no pension. That will effectively impose term limits right there.
Third, no health insurance.
Fourth. Travel costs can be part of a stipend they receive. If they want to go on an overseas “fact finding” mission, it needs to come out of the same budget.
Come to think of it, they really don’t even need to go to DC. They can do everything by videoconference and remain where they, and constituents, live.
And they whine that they need to be paid more.
It’s always ‘more’.
We’re being told to tighten our belts, eat our peas etc, and they keep voting themselves pay raises.
There needs to be some restrictions on that.
Congress wasn’t supposed to be a money making scheme.
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