Posted on 06/16/2016 12:14:32 AM PDT by Olog-hai
Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.) says that people find it surprising that members of Congress are in “year nine without a cost of living increase” and House members who make $174,000 a year, are “deserving of being paid appropriately.” […]
“Some substantial number of members of this body are multi-millionaires, a significant number of members of this body easily qualify to be in the middle-class or the upper-class — and there are some members here who are in the lower-class in our society,” Hastings said. […]
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the median net worth of a member of Congress was $1,029,505 in 2013, with 50.8 percent of the members of Congress ranked as millionaires. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that median income for a household in the U.S. was $53,657 in 2014. …
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Rep. Alcee Hastings (Debt Slavemaster-Fla.) should be in federal prison with the other members of the Gang of 535.
Land of the thieves...
…home of the slaves.
When you are not happy with your current compensation at your current employer, then go seek new a new employer like the rest of us do.
sez the convicted felon and only judge ever impeached since the civil war....
Maybe instead of term limits we should have “wealth limits”. Once you have snorted a certain amount from the trough you have to go home.
I was wondering if someone would mention that.
Happened while I was still in S. Fla. when that happened.
He was building a house and putting in gold plated plumbing fixtures.
And then the stupid people of Fla elect this crook to Congress.
Wouldn't surprise me if he was running another 'game' and trying to justify it.
"I had to do something, I'm not paid a living wage"
174k would be okay if no member could serve more than one term and no session could last more than three months and one session a year. Senators and congressmen should also lose a thousand dollars per page over 2 pages in any bill passed in one year.
Too dumb to steal!
This a hoot coming from a former federal judge who was removed from the bench for criminal behaviour and has somehow convinced his black constituents to reward his misbehavior on the bench with a seat in Congress. I guess they “love” the fact that “he’s getting over on whitey!” The man is pond scum!
Look at the increases in Social Security over the same time period. Net = ZERO, after paying increased Medicare costs.
Cut them to about 50k per year ...
Most people, if they don’t feel they are being paid enough, go out and find another job. Maybe Hastings should consider that?
The honor of service alone should be sufficient.
Fair enough. So how 'bout this solution:
Give them a "cost of living" adjustment. Their salary should equal the US median family income. THAT should give them a great incentive to improve the economy!
As for their "two homes". Give them an expense account equal to the cost of staying in a DC Motel 6 for every day that congress is in session, and no more than coach air fare back to their homes when it is not.
Well, then, how about after nine years just leave and go get a real job?
-PJ
Hastings should have been repatriated to Liberia long ago.
How ‘bout congressional barracks? That would incentivize the parasites to get out of D.C. as quickly as possible, and, hopefully, lessen the legislative damage they do each and every session.
As far as congressional pay in concerned, I like the idea of paying Members of Congress the average of what they earned in the four years prior to running for Congress. There is no particular reason they all should be paid the same thing. Pay them according to their station in the private sector. The underlying assumption would be that they are citizens taking a few years out of their regular lives, to which they will soon return. They have mortgages, credit card bills, and kids in school. They should not have to wreck their family finances to serve. But there is no reason they should expect to get rich either. If they're still in wealth accumulation mode, they should stay in the private sector to begin with.
I do recognize the two-residence issue, so I would also pay Members a housing allowance for the duration of their stay in DC. I have no desire to be punitive, so I'd make this generous enough for Members to live on or near Capitol Hill, which has become an expensive neighborhood. (This is a new thing in the history of the Hill, which tickles longtime residents no end.) I wouldn't inflict the commute from Gaithersburg, Haymarket, or Occoquon on anyone, even a Member of Congress.
Considering many of them bring much blactivism into government, most of them are stealing—our time and money! I do agree with you, they aren’t competent enough to survive off one of the government’s teats in the real world!
yes they do deserve to be “paid appropraitely”
SO THE SALARY AND TOTAL EXPENSES SHOULD BE ABOUT $25000 and that is being generous...
nowhere on the face of the earth is there a more useless congregation and coalescing of crooks, thiefs, conmen, liars, immoral, self centered deceiving scumbags destroying America...and FREEDOM...
THAN WASHINGTON DC AND ENVIRONS.....
Even if that could somehow be accomplished, the kickbacks and bribery, as well as outright theft that these scummy bastards get away with, would preclude any of them from leaving their seat.
In today's America, elective office is simply a license to steal.
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