491
Retiring House Republican says $174,000 isn't enough money for members of Congress: 'Most of us don't have wealth'
(www.businessinsider.com)
TFW
this post was submitted on 05 Jan 2024
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politics
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While I do agree that’s really not enough anymore, given engineering (for example) salary in high cost of living areas and I’d support an increase …
- it’s up to Congress to give their successors a raise
- given the Clarence Thomas issue, we can see that no amount of pay will be enough for some of them, given lack of ethics standards
- we keep seeing articles about politicians being wealthy and minimal conflict of interest standards, so let’s see the evidence that salary is a meaningful part of their pay
Maybe I’m just frustrated having to go through annual ethics training for my company. Why am I, as an individual contributor, held to so much higher an ethics standard than people who make decisions for the future of our entire country? Why do I need to watch out go for insider trading when I don’t have insider information, compared to people with the access of Congress? Why is my standard for conflict of interest so much higher than someone who can actually take advantage? Heck, why am I held to so much higher a standard on discrimination and harassment, than people with so much power over their victims?
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How much are they making on the stock market?
Maybe they should have thought of that at some point in the last 44 years instead of destroying the socioeconomic mobility of the lower- and middle-class in the country. Now the leopard is eating their face, too, and it’s extremely appropriate.
If only they understood the irony
Sir, please get fucked and die. Thank you.
You're more than welcome to suck on Deez nuts and see what you can get
Inflation hits everyone hard
Rank-and-file members of both the House and Senate are paid $174,000 a year. That probably seems like a decent amount of money, and it is: The median household income in 2022 was $74,580, according to the US Census. But consider that members of Congress generally have to maintain two residences — one in Washington, DC, and one in their home state — and that they haven't gotten a raise since 2009.
2x74,580 is 149,160 174,000 - 149,160 is 24,840 on top of twice the median 2022 census numbers.
Salaries havent changed in 20 years?
Can someone find how how many times their salaries did increase well beyond the rate of inflation?
How many years does the average rank and file member of the rank and file serve in office.
Also we are comparing a single persons salary to a household income, which shoud be taken into acount. How many households earning that 74,580 are doing it with a single income earner? If even half of those are not single individuals then compared to the average household income, the rank and file members of congress and the senate are effectively earning the equivalent of double their salary, or should be compared to other individuals earning less than $37,281 or approximately 17.92 per hour
Like most the problems in America, it's all about housing.
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Neither do we.
It's almost like being a public servant isn't intended to make you wealthy. $174k per Congressperson is more than double the average household income, so they can make it work.
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Isn't Washington D.C. also one of the more expensive cities to live in?
So, yeah, residence at home, residence in D.C. Tough to swing on 174K.
What they should do is make everyone remote. Secure video connections from their homes.
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Oh the poor old things. Imagine not getting a raise since 2009!! All the minimum wage workers can imagine just that, because minimum wage hasn't been raised since 2009, either. And a full time minimum wage job is going to provide a helluva less income than $174K.
I'm so tired of these privileged blowhards griping and complaining about how hard they have it while actively refusing to actually improve the lives of their constituents.
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That salary means something different to a congressman from the Bay area or NYC, vs. a congressman from Boise or Iowa. Im down for pay raises generally.
Can't afford two houses on that salary. Boo hoo!
They can literally print money freely via insider trading, which is why many of them are millionaires. “Don’t have wealth”??? k.
This crying for more taxpayer dollar handouts through one of their pet media rags garners no sympathy from me. Especially when many of them view their role as obstructionists who should prevent government from functioning entirely. It’s pathetic, they should fuck off to the geriatric ward if they don’t think the job pays enough.