I want to see their pay stubs! Anyone make this much ?

[vetwife]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ON CAPITOL HILL
Senators raise own pay for 5th straight year
Feingold calls automatic wage-increase system 'just wrong'

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- AND THIS WAS IN 2003.........
We are paying for these jackasses to hold us hostage in a war and no healthcare ! We should demand they show us what they are getting paid..From us and other sources !



...............................................................
Posted: October 23, 2003
2:49 p.m. Eastern



© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

U.S. senators, for the fifth straight year, have approved a pay increase for themselves.

Assuming the legislation is signed into law, members of the 100-member body will be pulling in about $158,000 next year, the Associated Press reports.

The House of Representatives OK'd the 2.2 percent cost-of-living increase for all members of Congress last month.

Sen. Russel Feingold, D-Wis., again spoke out against the pay raise this year, as he has in past years. His amendment to kill the raise was rejected by a vote of 60-34.

"This automatic stealth pay-raise system is just wrong," Feingold stated, according to AP, saying it was "the wrong time for Congress to give itself a pay hike."

EDITED BY ADMIN: COPYRIGHT

[DarkPhenyx]

1. Hell no I don't.

I'm working as a research scientist trying to help find a cure for cancer and I make $22,000 a year.

[RebelOne]

14. I don't understand. You are a research scientist

and only earning $22,000? That's unbelievable.

[DarkPhenyx]

16. Sad but true.

I am a low level research scientist mind you. Not one of the research directors or senior scientists but still, I think it's worth more than $22K/annum.

[RebelOne]

19. Yes, I agree.

In my opinion, your pay scale should be at least double what you are earning.

[DarkPhenyx]

22. Will you talk to my boss for me?

:)

Apparently my talking to her isn't doing any good.

[mike_c]

17. post-doc?

That's pretty paltry even for the indentured serviture of post-docs. That's about what I made as a post-doc research associate ten years ago. Of course, after grad school it seemed like a fortune, and I got health insurance for the first time in 15 years.

[DarkPhenyx]

18. No, I don't have a PhD.

Even our PhD's are paid for shit though. I've got a Bach in Bio with 3 years work in this lab. I'm working as an Associate Scientist which is entry level for most research positions.

[vetwife]

2. No wonder they don't feel a crunch ! They are totally out of touch

We are all George Baileys to a bunch of Potters aand we live in Potterville....From "It's a Wonderful Life"

[Yupster]

23. I really believe in term limits

We'd lose some good people, but they'd find other places to help.

But we'd get people who are more connected with the communities they represent and know they'll have to go back to them.

We'd also get rid of the congresscritters for life who drool on their podiums and wet their depends while voting on complicated 400 page bills.

I for one could have survived the last decade just fine without decrepid former Dixiecrats or former Klansmen making my laws for me.

[Shadowen]

3. What's required to override a presidential veto?

If I were president, I'd be slapping down those greedy bastards every time they tried this shit.

60-34...60 isn't two-thirds, though it's close. Two-thirds (rounded up--67--or down--66?) is the required amount, right?

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

4. I'm a middle school teacher in a very poor school

I make in the high 30s.

What's wrong with this picture?

(To include the research scientist above...)

[RebelOne]

15. You are fortunate. I would like to be earning in the high 30s.

I am a copyeditor and only earning just above the middle 20s.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

32. Would you like to teach

110 eighth-graders how to write a kick-ass essay? They are about 13-15 years old in that grade. You get them about 27 at a time, five times a day, for 55 minutes at a time, with four minutes in between. Your lunch is 20 minutes long. Pull duty before and after school and serve as department head. I've only touched the tip of the iceburg.

I love it, but the responsibility and stress is ENORMOUS.

My point was that the pay is out of proportion to what the job entails.

Edited to add that's how much I make with 8 years of experience and as a department head.

[Hamlette]

5. some perspective seems in order

I don't make that much but I don't have to maintain two homes, one in DC and one in my home state.

If you make it so only rich people can afford to hold office then you REALLY make it an elietist crowd. If the pay is high you potentially attract everyone in the country to the office. As it should be.

[charlie]

8. True, but here's another perspective

So-called midnight pay raises were one of the weapons Newt and his crew effectively used to rout the Democrats in 94. If Repubs get tarred with the same crap this time around, I'm all for it.

[JanMichael]

9. Some countries provide, no joke, dormatories for representatives.

Actually this is an interesting subject, IIRC a panel of several former Congress persons were on CSPAN talking about this very issue last year. One republican, yes a republican, commented on how he almost declared bankruptcy due to having to maintain two homes, another said that he's shared a 700 sq/ft studio with 4, yes 4, other reps during his term.

It's a ridiculous rich man's game unless we make it possible for a school teacher to be able to afford being a democratic representative of the people.

[leetrisck]

11. Try maintaining a home on military pay - you certainly

can't maintan 2 and usually not one. If you try to have a place in your home state and one wherever you have to be stationed, it is impossible. Military choose to serve and so do House and Senate - but House and Senate control theirs and scream about maintaining 2 homes - geez

[Eric J in MN]

28. I agree.

$158,000 per year in salary for US Senators isn't a problem.

Their dependence on campaign cash, and the revolving door between lobbying agencies and federal agencies is the real problem.

Also, the stocks they own.

[K-W]

30. Yah, there are lots of working class Senators running around washington

nt

[The Zanti Regent]

6. Annual Pay Raises are illegal under 27th Amendment

Here is the text:

Amendment XXVII

No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.

It is illegal for Congress to receive annual pay increases AND their increases can only take effect AFTER a new Congress is seated...

[OneTwentyoNine]

7. Everyone needs a raise thats "required by law"

Damn...I need one of those jobs where you could go to jail unless you accept a pay raise.

This is fucking outrageous in this economy....

David

[vetwife]

10. Well Zell is overpaid ! Most all of them are ! 2 homes? I say

With that kind of money they could commute and stay in a modest hotel till weekends ! They are luckier than most ! Some average folks don't even have the fleabag motel, much less another place of residence.

[Vickers]

12. Put 'em in dorms. Hey, it's good enough for the military folks they love

so much.

NOT!

Plus, dorm-life would make term-limits a non-issue.

:P

[vetwife]

13. Think about this just a second....

It is coming out of our pockets to pay these guys to make

War
Take away overtime
Send jobs overseas
Do away with veterans hospitals
cut needed benefits
slash social security
take away civil liberties
spy on us
lose jobs
destroy the enviornment

It has always been bad but now where is their sacrafice? Huh?

[kentuck]

20. "This increase is required by law," he said, according to AP.

Well, repeal the fucking law, dumbass! :mad:

[Moderator]

21. vetwife

Per DU copyright rules
please post only four
paragraphs from the
news source.

Thank you.

DU Moderator

[vetwife]

31. Thanks Moderator..Didn't know..appreciate it.

[DoyBoy]

24. I USED to make $52,500

but that was 2 years ago. I worked for a computer software company (management and artist) for 11 years and I was laid off due to "downsizing." I have not been able to find a steady job for 2 years (unless I try for one of those burger manufacturing jobs). Thanks W!

I always felt that the people in govt shouldn't be able to vote for their raises. I think WE should get to do that. At least we should get to hold them to a nominal (under $100,000) unnegotiable salary (after all most of them were well off before they got into office).

[Liberal Classic]

25. Doesn't anyone remember the midnight pay raise?

When all the limosuines started pulling up at the capitol building in the middle of the night?

[Q]

26. Isn't the real issue that our representatives...

...were NEVER meant to make a lifetime career out of it? The Founders saw the logic in 'rotating' PUBLIC SERVANTS so that no state had an advantage over any other with the establishment of cronyism.

- A trial period of term limits may be the only way out of this mess...where rich, fat cats serve their entire life and build their own little empires around that service. What's the incentive to serve the people instead of those who keep their campaign chests full?

[Bake]

27. Get your Ph.D., Phenyx!

But then, I'm a lawyer, so what the fuck do I know?

Bake

[KharmaTrain]

29. I Like The Dorm Idea And More...

Let me throw my support to those who've posted who are doing valuable jobs and barely able to survive compared to the elistist...most in the GOOP...who live in the world of greed, arrogance and paranoia. I salute those who find the fruits of their work rewarding and may we, one day, reward those people financially...at least with a wage system where a family can live in relative comfort and have quality time and money to share.

On the pay thing...I like that dorm concept and let's go even further. Let's prescribe a "legislative period" where the representatives are called into session and during that time are isolated in the process of bill making and oversight. No long breaks or 4 day weeks or waiting til the 11th hour to pass the require apporpriations that keep the government going...and do it as a reality show...keep the camera on these people 24/7 while they're on our dime!

Yep, doesn't sound like fun. No drinkie-drinkie parties, no hob-knobbing with the lobbyists, no junkets that are nothing more than corporate payoffs...and we'd save a lot of money, too. Yep, when they live in the dorms and on our food, no need for a second home...we'll provide one. No need for charters and other special travel arrangements, that, too will be arranged on exiting scheduled commercial airlines who will gladly provide Free fare for the one person to and from Washington as part of their massive government subsidies.

Ahhh...someone slap me, I'm dreaming!!!!