In comparison to the bulk of their constituents, Congressional salaries are huge. Their office expenses include salaries for numerous staffs, not only in Washington but locally, furniture, postage, water, office supplies. The list is endless. See the disbursements reported by the House of Representatives at http://disbursements.house.gov/. It is mind boggling. I looked up the young man who got assigned to help my husband and me with our Fannie Mae issue. Apparently, he makes over $25K a year and is a part-time employees with the lowest salary!
That aside, you really should look at some of the numbers and expenses in this publication. All the details are there. It's three volumes long! Of course, the numbers not only reflect the Honorable Representatives and their expenses but every other minute detail of what our tax dollars are funding...AND...this report does not include the expenditures from the Senate. Can you imagine how much is there?!
Did you know there are approximately "17 Senate committees, with 70 subcommittees, and 23 House committees, with 104 subcommittees." (b) They all have budgets, expenses, salaries...the whole gambit. Then there are technical departments, grounds keepers, cloakroom employees, police, security, secretaries, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da. Sadly, there is a lot of fluff and redundancy written into the Congressional budgets.
A March 2010, article in Politco reports:
Nearly 2,000 House of Representatives staffers pulled down six-figure salaries in 2009, including 43 staffers who earned the maximum $172,500 — or more than three times the median U.S household income. (a)
Our country needs to rein in spending...AGREED! But the men and women who are up there playing with our lives are not cleaning up their own issues. They have the media and the money to sell their ideas to an American public who usually stands back and trusts their judgment. Where has it gotten us?
Medicare, Medicaid, Pell grants and more are being touted the root of this country's financial knots. They have become the Republican's whipping boys and are in the budget crosshairs. This is WRONG! Congress has basically turned a deaf ear to the fraud in Medicare and Medicaid while billions of dollars are funneled into the bulging pockets of insurance companies and the bureacracy, skyrocketting these programs costs.
Sadly, today's woes are multifaceted, but Washington has to accept the blame. Politicians have been getting wealthier for years by legislating favors for their Wall Street buds, oil moguls, pharmaceutical giants, banking thieves and insurance pals. When Congress should have been safeguarding America, they were writing earmarks and pandering to the lobbyists and special interest groups. While the Pentagon's budget has gone into outer space, elected officials have allowed the men and women in our military to remain in harms way so an unscrupulous few could continue to profit from the war machine. Most devastating was the financial bailout our elected officials crafted during the Wall Street, banking, insurance and auto industry melt down a few years ago. While the media painted horror stories of a bankrupt American and crumbling world, Washington bailed out their pals! Even though the majority of financial experts in this country warned against postponing the inevitable results of the financial melt down and compounding the problems with a soaring deficit, Washington did it anyway. Yeah! They saved their pals' asses! Not only that, they put money right back into the pockets of the criminals. Today,they are richer than ever!
SO NOW, we are at the brink again...Congress is scrambling for answers. Instead of going for the gutteral of the industries that got us to this point in history, the Republicans are opting to severely cut programs effecting the largest and lowest income groups in our society. Why? They know it is easier to go after the people who have no money or voice in Washington rather than ruffle their benefactor's feathers. Their big media friends are already mounting scare tactics and doomsday ads to distract the lamb heading to slaughter.
I say make those entities responsible for our current financial horror pay back America. Charge them a retroactive, windfall profits tax on their billions and billions of mostly untaxed dollars. Also, don't let companies with obscene profits get away with $.00 taxes. Force these crooks to make up the shortfall and fund the programs until America gets back on its feet! Then have Congress pass some laws equitable to everyone in this country when it comes to paying their fair share in taxes. It's only right...
HOWEVER...If the Washington lackeys still don't step up to the plate, the people of the United States should take these companies to court and sue them for damages...Let the Judicial Branch get involved for a while!
a: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/35050.html
b: http://www.thecapitol.net/FAQ/cong_leadership.html#HouseCommittees
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