by Nick Tomboulides
According to the Census Bureau, median household income in the United States is 8 percent lower today than it was in 2007, before the Great Recession. But even with Americans cutting back to make ends meet, some members of Congress are still demanding a raise on top of their $174,000 salaries.
22-year Florida Congressman Alcee Hastings (D-20) is the latest career politician to whine that his generous compensation isn’t enough.
“We aren’t being paid properly,” he said at a Rules Committee meeting this week.
The problem is, Hastings’ income places him in the upper two percent of earners in America. Beyond getting a salary that is three times the private sector average, he receives health care subsidies, free air travel, millions of dollars in office allowance and a retirement plan that beats what most employers can offer.
Worst of all, none of this is tied to performance! Four in five Americans disapprove of the job Congress is doing. In any other profession, disappointing the boss that badly earns someone a pink slip, not a pay hike.
Hastings isn’t the first person to suggest Congress feather its own nest at a time when the country is running a massive deficit each year. Last year, Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia proposed adding a $25 daily stipend for members of Congress to cope with the high cost of living in D.C.
Hastings and Moran are only symptoms of a greater problem. When incumbents are invincible at the ballot box and isolated in the Washington bubble, they grow detached from the people they were elected to serve. Notions like Congress getting paid more while constituents get by with less — absurd to anyone with common sense — become legitimate questions in the minds of people out to serve themselves.
Aren’t you tired of the tone-deafness coming out of Washington on a daily basis? Help us dethrone career politicians like Alcee Hastings by making a small contribution to U.S. Term Limits today. Click HERE to contribute.
Nick Tomboulides is the Executive Director of U.S. Term Limits
