Posted on 12/20/2010 3:58:11 AM PST by gusopol3
When he (Cantor) became minority whip last year, the office's personnel expenses went up by at least 16 percent...
Firebrand Republican Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has for months pushed legislation to freeze what she calls "unconscionable" federal salaries. Meanwhile, her own payroll jumped 16 percent between 2007, when she came to Congress, and 2009.....
— Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who has long criticized federal pay, has overseen an average jump of 8 percent per year in his office employee costs between 2006, his first full year in the Senate, and 2009.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
I’m not buying any bulldroppings from the AP.
Congressional salaries and office expenses (including payroll) are two totallly different things. AP is comparing apples and oranges here and then beating up the congresspersons for it. How fair.
They’re still hiring staffers or raising their pay. We’d love to do that at work, but it can’t happen due to budget realities. Yeah, I do want to see the data on Pelosi, her jet , etc.
Oh no doubt and it may be wastefful or it may be temporary and needed. We would have to see the spreads to know for sure. But, the only point I'm making is the hypocrisy AP was charging is bull. Congressional salaries and office expenses are two different things.
Just because this comes from AP shouldn’t be a reason to dismiss it. If this was about Democrats, we’d all be having cows.
Here are the excuses:
“The lawmakers offered various explanations for their rising costs, with many saying they were simply going along with the budget allowances that Congress sets each year for its members. Some said they were working to hire the best staffs they could to serve their districts or had new demands such as the need to hire a social media coordinator.
Chaffetz and Coburn emphasized that while they may have spent more on salaries, they still came in well under the overall budget for House and Senate expenditures.”
Stupid examples.
Cantor was majority whip. When majority staffs become minority staffs, they tend to be more expensive then the preivous minority staff, which had been in the minority for years. I would be more interested in if the number went down the following year or not.
Bachman simply received the pay raise EVERY congressperson received. You can be against pay raises, but still take them if you are entitled, just as I presume EVERY DEMOCRAT who makes more than 250,000 a year will take the tax cut they all railed about.
2006 was Coburn’s first year, when he put together his first bare-bones office staff. It isn’t at all surprising that as he got around, figured out the job, and determined how to serve his constituents, the costs went up. As the article states, his costs are still well below the average costs. He simply started at a very low cost.
"I am more and more convinced that man is a dangerous creature, and that power whether vested in many or few, is ever grasping and, like the grave, cries 'give, give!' The great fish swallow up the small; and he who is most strenuous for the rights of the people, when vested with power, is as eager after the prerogatives of government."
I'm hopeful your analysis is correct and that the current group is more vigilant against the subtle corruptions of power than the 1994 group proved to be.
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