Congress’ unconstitutional pay scam
gets members $34K raises
New York Post,
by
James Bovard
Original Article
Posted By: Imright,
5/1/2023 3:12:32 AM
Washington, DC, needs an emergency supply of snazzy sandwich boards announcing, “Will Legislate for Food.”
A hunger crisis on Capitol Hill gave congressional leaders no choice but to trample the Constitution.
Thanks to a backroom deal, House members can now claim automatic reimbursement of $258 a night for lodging expenses and $79 a day for meals in DC — even if they don’t spend a dime.
But though House members can pocket up to $34,000 a year in additional tax dollars, it’s not a pay raise because politicians are entitled to use false labels for everything they do.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Trigger2 5/1/2023 4:21:08 AM (No. 1460162)
Greedy bastids.
16 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Samsquanch 5/1/2023 5:01:57 AM (No. 1460167)
Good benefits and they get to destroy the country too, win-win for them.
19 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Strike3 5/1/2023 5:17:52 AM (No. 1460172)
It's a good job if you don't mind getting your hands dirty.
15 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
mifla 5/1/2023 5:50:13 AM (No. 1460177)
Just call it the Congressional Solution For Their Own Personal Inflation Act.
11 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Cindiana 5/1/2023 7:08:16 AM (No. 1460199)
This warrants a March on the Capitol.
5 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
planetgeo 5/1/2023 7:35:43 AM (No. 1460210)
Definitely requires outrage to rain down on the House leadership. And the solution is very simple. As with every business, NO "EXPENSE" PAYMENTS without legitimate receipts. Otherwise, it's fraud.
8 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
hershey 5/1/2023 7:39:27 AM (No. 1460215)
Time to go to the polls and clean out that whole rats nest...they get more freebees than welfare recipients or illegals...
7 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Historybuff 5/1/2023 8:03:13 AM (No. 1460224)
Don’t you wish you could vote yourself a raise?
Just to make it equitable how about congress gets paid the average amount that their district members make in a year? Take Maxine Waters district, average it out, and that’s your pay per year.
5 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Califedup 5/1/2023 8:23:05 AM (No. 1460229)
Disgusting pigs. Notice how we are hearing about this snouts in the trough stealth looting of our tax dollars after it has been implemented with nary a peep from all those conservative republicans in Congress. More proof that there is a Uni-Party and the republicans do not give a damn about the chumps (like me) who keep voting for them. Liars and Thieves.
5 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
Rather Read 5/1/2023 9:14:27 AM (No. 1460262)
They gave themselves a raise that is equal to my pre-tax salary. I'm going to get about a 2% raise this year. And inflation keeps going higher and higher.
3 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Rinktum 5/1/2023 10:18:45 AM (No. 1460306)
#7, Going to the polls has not appeared to be very effective. One thing I would like to see is that they would be confronted on this outrage especially when families are suffering and going without while these elite parasites chow down on the American carcass which they have downed by an insatiable lust for power and greed facilitated by corruption. Give them what they deserve, our utter contempt and a long jail sentence.
4 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
DVC 5/1/2023 10:55:02 AM (No. 1460352)
The whole automatic per diem payment thing has been a government problem (for taxpayers) for decades.
No reciepts required for food, ever. The per diem is based on the city, and while it often seemed exorbitant, often it was inadequate for many business meals.
When I traveled on government business, often it was necessary to eat in nice (read "very expensive") restaurants as business dinners with leadership of various research institutes. But some times there were no business dinners, and maybe a weekend where we weren't traveling between cities, didn't have business meetings, so I could find an inexpensive local restaurant, or even a McDonalds for a couple of meals $5 or $10 , and yet, the full per diem, over $150 in some international cities) was always automatically accrued. It wasn't too difficult after a few weeks of government travel to be hundreds of dollars ahead.
I suppose I could have had some sort of a fight with the travel department of my company, or the Dept of Energy and tried to change this, but I just wasn't up to fighting the bureaucracy. Easier to just take the money, like everyone else did.
3 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
DVC 5/1/2023 11:00:11 AM (No. 1460355)
More re #12, and I wasn't in any position to affect policy, being just an engineering project manager, not anything even remotely like a Representative in the House.
But, I saw that this was "the system".
We did have to prove our hotel bills, with receipts and were paid the actual costs, which had to be less than the per diem. In some cities, finding a decent, safe hotel under the per diem was a bit of a challenge, like Moscow for example. Lots of unsafe places there, and the safe and pleasant ones were very expensive, sometimes difficult to find one under per diem cost.
0 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
TXknitter 5/1/2023 11:26:18 AM (No. 1460374)
I am so glad to see this article. We have a wonderful and growing army of independent journalists now and all this needs to be thoroughly exposed. I pray a Tucker Carlson arises for whom the real salaries, reimbursements and financial shenanigans of our reps becomes their issue.
It is depressing because people agree on principle but will not confront THEIR representative or publicly criticize cuz they “like” him. They are treated really more like they are owed their seats once they are incumbents. This has brought us the greedy, secret, and protected by media group of rulers we now have on Capitol Hill.
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
mifla 5/2/2023 6:44:26 AM (No. 1460914)
OK, we taxpayers just voted ourselves a tax cut.
Don't expect a check next year.
0 people like this.
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