Every member in the House and the Senate gets an allotment (called a Members Representational Allowance in the House) which they can use to hire and pay staff, buy office supplies, lease office space in their home state or district, mail official documents, answer mail, travel back and forth between Washington and their home, and generally try to serve their constituents. The amount each office gets is based on a formula, but generally it's around $1 million. There are limits on how many people you can hire (18 permanent, 4 part time) and on how much you can pay people (max is $151,000). It varies from member to member, but most offices spend the most on staff salaries, then mail, then office rent, travel, supplies, etc
The current salary average is $155,000.00 The only exceptions are the Speaker, who makes over $194,000 and the Majority and Minority Leaders who make approximately $167,000.
That's an average of $1,155,000.00 per Representative or Senator each and none of this money is allowed to be used for campaign funds so they are not using it to get re elected. That's a grand total of $82,925,000.00 per year for these 535 elected officials to do business. A Representatives term is 2 years so they get $2,310,000.00 per term, our Senators have 6 year terms so they get $6,930,000.00 per term. These officials have fully vested retirement and health insurance after just 5 years of service. (vested means can not be taken away by any third party)
Wait a minute, maybe its because I'm not intelligent enough to understand, but are these the guys that just approved 875 billions dollars of our tax dollars to bail out the banks, stock market, and auto industry and another 765 billion, because of irresponsible business practices by these organizations, all the while allowing these banks to foreclose on middle income American home owners (some of the very people paying the tax to bail them out) for the same reason. Are not these the same elected officials telling 40% of Americans they can live on miminum wage. How would they know. They are handing out millions to the medical and pharmicutical industry and telling us we can not have health care, and we are paying for it all.
I know that I'm just a simple country preacher, and I'm sure they would say I do not understand High finance but, my daddy always told me that if it looked like a duck, walked like a duck, but chirped like a chicken, something was terribly wrong. My friends there has been a lot of chirping coming out of Washington for more 20 years.
This is my opinion and does not reflect the ULC, its organizations, or members opinion.
Just an Old Preacher's Opinion
Rev Robert Fuller
