Arizona Dem Wants Congress To Feel The Pain Of Pay Cuts, Too
You know, I don't normally go in for what usually turn out to be empty, symbolic gestures, but I can really get behind the idea of cutting Congressional salaries. In fact, I think 10% is more like it! I also think we should charge them to use the medical clinic in the Capitol building, and they should have to pay for COBRA benefits when they lose their jobs, just like everybody else. It really galls me to think of them getting lifelong medical coverage:
Ann Kirkpatrick wants a pay cut and she’s getting testy about having to wait so long to get it.
Last March, U.S. Rep. Kirkpatrick sponsored legislation to cut congressional salaries a modest 5%, saying it was high time that Congress shared the pain with the rest of America. As U.S. workers have suffered layoffs, pay cuts and furloughs over the past two years, Congress has actually been spending more money than ever. In fact, if it hadn’t been for another bill that Kirkpatrick supported, Kirkpatrick and her colleagues in the U.S. legislature would have gotten automatic pay raises this year, as they did in 2008 and 2009.
The notion of cutting Congressional pay is wildly popular. A recent survey by the Rasmussen Reports found that 75% of Americans think members of Congress should cut their pay until the budget is balanced. And nearly one in eight think members of Congress should not be able to get a raise unless taxpayers vote for it.
As things stand, members of Congress set their own pay and they’ve been quite generous. Rank and file members of congress now earn $174,000 annually — more than about 97% of the rest of the country. That’s up 23% over the past decade.
Of course absolutely nothing will come of it. She knows it and so does everyone else. Strictly a political ploy but that's what you obviously gotta do in Arizona these days. Hate on brown people or talk about tax cuts or pay cuts for politicians or whatever. Or talk about re-writing the consititution.
Give them the same health plan they gave us - none. Let them pay whatever the monopolies want to charge - with no guarantee their medical claims will be paid - and mandate that they do so.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
we should never be impressed by a candidate who claims he or she is spending their own money on a campaign. It's tantamount to saying, "I'm spending millions of my own dollars to land a job that pays less than 200 grand because the benefits are awesome!"
They can find $174K in their couch cushions.
The people of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage." J.K. Galbraith
I would -fire- most of Congress if I could, not just cut their salaries. But cutting Congressional salaries just makes the members more reliant on handouts from lobbyists, donors, "think tanks" and so on. Do we want legislative service to be a feasible option only for the wealthy and the lackies of the wealthy?
At this point I think the country would benefit from doubling the size of the House of Representatives, and perhaps the Senate too, if we can swing it. It's not like the additional Congressional salaries would break the bank, and it would increase the impact of grassroots money.
What's lost on these people is that serving their country is a privilege, not a right. They expect to be put upon a pedestal even after they are out of office and expect the public to owe them everything; we are supposed to be their servants...not the other way around.
I once worked for a cable company and saw it myself when a former U.S. Rep. from our area called me one Saturday wanting me to send a tech out to replace his cable TV line that a neighbor had cut while mowing. Our policy was that we did not send a tech out on weekends unless multiple customers in an area were without service, and when I advised him of this it was then that he reminded me he was "Rep. so-and-so" and he all but demanded that I send someone out.
Yes...after contacting my supervisor, we had to send out a technician so that his highness could watch football on TV.
I'd go for cutting their salaries
And kicking them off of the FEHB plans.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Who's the bimbette eating her lower lip?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
they are in a position of public responsibility. They should get the same treatment as truckers and airline pilots do.
CA legislature, but in his case it's to hide that he steals from children, the elderly, and the physically & mentally disabled rather than tax his rich pals.
But I'm with you Susie, this is an appealing idea for the U.S. legislature.
I've never seen change without a fire
It just amazes me how the Dems are always off message. Gets on faux with a topic that, that crowd would listen to what a Dem has to say and it is like girls going googoo.
her immediate response should have been the $794,000,000,000 bailout let's remember was a bush crime family thing and the greatest robbery in the history of the world. the 1,000,000,000,000 Health care will not only save millions of American lives, but will save a trillion dollars too.
why am i doing this. to show the members of congress how corporations are terrorizing american families across the country. In Janesville, WI Wolf industries is blackmailing over 200 families
take a 20% pay cut or we will move our plant to Kentucky
, Motts in NY (stop buying their products, they do Dr. Pepper a drink i will never have again) again almost 400 families being terrorized take a pay cut or loose your job.
this is news those faux folks don't cover. a chance to hit them in their own field and all I can say is thanks for the blown opportunity Ann.
does anyone know of a resource to find all the companies doing this???
I don't speak gibberish.
I suppose I could read it a second or third time, but why?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Here's some advice: Stop the self serving political stunts and take some time to listen to your electorate. They want good paying jobs and affordable healthcare, among others. Your proposed cut would not put one person back to work or accomplish one redemptive thing for those in need.
Try actually serving the public that pays your salary instead of serving your self interest at their expense.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
A silly, empty gesture. Most of these folks are multi-millionaires. You could discontinue their salaries entirely and not even impact their quality of life. It may appease the masses, but it's nothing more than symbolic "reform.". Actually, it's a diversion from real, fundamental reform.
... let's do it anyway. Cut 100% of the pay of any congresscreatures who are millionaires+, and use the money to host a free health clinic in D.C.
Nothing is stopping every existing Congressperson from voluntarily giving 20% of their annual salary to a local foodbank in their state or district.
In fact in any debates or other public events between now and November 2, all people running for Congress should be publicly reminded of the number of jobs lost in their states/districts since 2008, of the flat to falling wages suffered by the people who still have jobs for the past 30 years, and then asked if s/he will commit to give 20% of their Congressional salary to a foodbank if elected.
Doing that would also just give them yet another tax deduction. So, they'd be giving away money they don't need anyway and decreasing the amount they pay into the public coffers.
Most CongressCritters are wealthy enough to go without regular income long enough to win office, in fact almost all of them have incomes that put them in the top 5% of Americans. A symbolic 5% cut in their congressional pay isn't going to push them into action.
But they get nothing done without staff, and if their staff is feeling the pain, they feel the pain. How about we peg the pay of non-civil service congressional staff to the median personal income of the American wage earners - not average, but median - the amount where half of all Americans earn more and half earn less. This number has barely budged in 30 years (adjusted for CPI) - except for falling a bit since the beginning of the W years. Let's say that staff pay for each congressman cannot average more than the national median - minus the unemployment rate.
Median personal income in the US is about $32k this year. If a congressman has a 10 person staff, he gets a budget of $320k for them, minus 9.7% for the national unemployment rate = $289k. That staff will put a lot of pressure on their boss to reduce unemployment and improve the wages of the average American.
Aside from the fact that the idea that the staff will somehow pressure their boss "to reduce unemployment and improve the wages of the average American" isn't terribly realistic, the congressional staffers generally aren't making gobs of money anyway, and they have to live in DC, which has a ridiculously high cost of living.
How well would you like the idea if someone said that they're going to cut YOUR pay because your boss makes too much?
Political staff wages wouldn't be pegged to their boss' wage, it would be pegged to the median wage of all Americans. You can't argue that that is insufficient pay without admitting that the wages received by ordinary Americans are insufficient.
Those political staff are precisely the people who are enabling the policies that have put the American middle class in decline, there ought to be a feedback mechanism for their actions.
This woman is nuts, did you catch her phrase at the beginning "Let's lead by example" Right so if she takes a pay cut then she'll expect EVERYONE to take a pay cut. That includes people making 16k a year!! Think about that for a minute.
Is everyone talking about pay cuts to anyone except the ceo's and Global Corporations.
We should be demanding to stop the Bush tax cuts to the top 2 percent , the war in the middle east and stop the tax exempt and welfare which the government is giving to Corporations.
We should demand our government to stop the war contracts given to war contractors as Halliburton and Blackwater which are now foreign companies anyway. They follow no laws , rules or control and pay no taxes on the billions of tax dollars they are given by our government.
They have Americans fighting American to cut their wages and benefits , while they walk out the door with it ALL.
The cuts need to come from the top down.
That is how trickle down works.
Have to say these Global Corporations certainly know how to keep Americans to attack each other while the take over the store.
The Corporate Empires with over 60 years of experience of advertising to get people to buy their product or BS , looks to be working fine to get us to attack each other and let run our government.
Can one image what this country will be like once they privatize our educational system , public roads , military , Social Security , Medicare , police force , fire departments.
Think it is bad now .......................
None
Why not Start with getting the democrats to stop the Bush tax cuts , the war in the middle east and stop the billions of dollars in which these corporations are getting by moving their headquarters and jobs overseas.
They keep us jumping from one subject to another while they take it all.
None
nothing like a good healthy dose of populism to boost ones visibility.
aside from that i hope she's successful.
Most of them are rich by normal standards.
Now take away the perks, lobbiest influence and healthcare and you might have something.
Lew
Fighting the Christian American Taliban daily.
I cannot agree with her more except it should apply to everyone in elected office as well as appointments such as the Supreme Court.
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