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Related: About this forumGuess Which Whiny Crybaby Congressjerk Wants A Pay Raise This Time
poor babies
Guess Which Whiny Crybaby Congressjerk Wants A Pay Raise This Time
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Congress
Just to prove that Republicans do not have a monopoly on dick moves, Florida Rep. Alcee Hastings, who is ostensibly a Democrat the kind who wont campaign against Republicans is the latest member of Congress to whine about how underpaid he is, its so unfair, members of Congress can barely survive on their six-figure salaries, waaaaaaaah:
Members deserve to be paid, staff deserves to be paid and the cost of living here is causing serious problems for people who are not wealthy to serve in this institution, the Florida Democrat said at a Rules Committee meeting, referring to the average members $174,000 annual salary. We arent being paid properly, he later added. [
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He said that members with children come to realize that on the salary that they make, theyre going to be unable to send their children to college.
Hastings is hardly the first member of Congress to complain about how underpaid he is, even though his salary (plus all the fabulous perks and benefits that come with the gig) far exceeds the median income for Americans about $51,000, which is, you know, LESS. And yet many of those five-figure-earning Americans figure out how to send their kids to college, even if it means they do not get to live in a luxury complex in Northeast D.C., which Hastings can no longer afford, poor guy. Former Georgia Rep. Phil Gingrey, worth a mere $3 million, complained in 2013 that he was stuck in DC making his paltry congressional salary, while Capitol Hill aides got to put in a few years and then go become rich lobbyists. Gingrey has since been appointed to the Georgia World Congress Center, which sounds like an awesome gig where you get to sit in the luxury box at all the sportsball events and get thousands of dollars worth of fabulous gifts and prizes.
. . . . .
Hastings, meanwhile, claims the reason he wants even more money is to prevent Congress from becoming an elite institution that only rich people can afford to join, HAHAHAHAHAHA TOO LATE! The median net worth of members of Congress is $456,522, and about a third of them are millionaires, just like average Americans. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-All The Investigations!!!) is the richest, worth at least $357 million.
Hastings also thinks staffers need to be paid more too, which is kind of him to say, and yeah, heres the part where we remind you that in 2012, Hastings made the distinguished list of top representatives paying sweet fees and salaries to family members, giving $622,574 to his girlfriend. We have no idea how shes managed to survive. At least Hastings isnt one of those jerks who wants to abolish the minimum wage. Earlier this year, he called for a ballot measure in Florida to increase the states minimum wage to a whopping $12.50 an hour. Thats better than the current $8.05, and Hastings has said hed prefer $15, but no one would ever go for that. He did not say how Floridians making even $15 an hour would be able to send their kids to college or live in luxury apartments in the toniest neighborhoods, but maybe if we give Hastings a raise, or at least a tax credit, hell get around to that one eventually.
Read more at http://wonkette.com/586006/guess-which-whiny-crybaby-congressjerk-wants-a-pay-raise-this-time#D7MDJ7OzvrHu2HAk.99
randys1
(16,286 posts)We actually do need to pay ALL American politicians enough money so we do attract middle class Americans, lower middle class even.
The less you pay them the more likely you get elites, like in TEXAS where they have a PART TIME government, and the pay is so low nobody but someone with some wealth can do it.
This particular congresscritter may well be an asshole like you say, and the motives here may be all bullshit, like you say, but if we could get rid of the assholes, we would need to pay them all enough so that average people can do it.
Then we have to do something about the unending campaigning they do from the moment they are elected.
But other than that I feel you, I get why you are saying this.
Let's race to the top, let's insist these people are well compensated WHILE simultaneously insisting everybody is.
niyad
(113,016 posts)viewing for a month before every election.
randys1
(16,286 posts)Someone in the know did say that
I have seen it, need to see again, thanks for reminding
Hangingon
(3,071 posts)In 1988 he was impeached for bribery and prrjury.
DFW
(54,268 posts)Instead or raising their salary to make it easier for members of Congress to afford college for their children, how about this (and I realize it would take a LOT more work on the part of Congress, so many of them won't like it):
Raise the number of qualified students able to afford college!
i.e. make college more affordable, not only to the children of Congressmen making $174,000, but to real life people making $74,000, $47,000 or nothing at all.
niyad
(113,016 posts)the serf class EDUCATED?? so they can THINK??? what in the world is wrong with you?
It would eradicate the next generation of Foxsuckers like penicillin.