Benefits of a U.S. Congresswo/man

The benefits Congress passes for themselves is just another example of how hypocritical and twisted our government is; for once and for all we deserve to see the full picture... direct, indirect, over the counter and below... let's comb through the details shall we?

For starters, here's the... 2007 CRS Report for Congress
on "Retirement Benefits for Members of Congress"

...but i can't make any sense of it.

[edit on 21-10-2008 by The All Seeing I]

reply to post by The All Seeing I


Personally, I have to agree with. I think they should forgo their regular retirement plan and be forced to go on social security. I am sure that once they see how the system really works and more importantly affects them, social security would be fixed in a heartbeat.


What other job in the world could you give yourself a raise for doing nothing?


Good post op.

I still couldn't find any straight forward answers on retirement benefits...
but with regard to other less transparent benefits,
lets start with our future VP... shall we?

Credit card giant MBNA has been the #1 donor to Senator Biden's campaigns since 1993 and has made substantial contributions to Senator Snowe and Representative Michael N. Castle, Republican of Delaware. Combined, those three politicians have received more than $700,000 from MBNA and its employees from 1993-2004, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a research group in Washington that tracks money in politics.

What did MBNA get for all that money? While Biden's main work has been on the FRC, he has been a consistent advocate for MBNA. He has actively supported the company's favorite fed legislation, the Bankruptcy Reform Act, which would make it more difficult for consumers to escape their credit card debt.

Biden shepherded the bankruptcy legislation along by taking the unusual tack of inserting it into a foreign relations bill in 2000. The bill passed through congress that year but Clinton vetoed it, yet Bush passed it five years later, despite opposition from consumer advocates.

The company also has ties to Biden's son, R. Hunter Biden, a lawyer in washington. Hunter Biden joined MBNA as a management trainee after graduating from Yale Law and rose to be an executive VP. Now a partner in Oldaker, Biden & Belair, a lobbying and law firm, he receives a $100,000 annual retainer from MBNA to advise it on "the Internet and privacy law."

[edit on 25-10-2008 by The All Seeing I]

With economy in shambles, Congress gets a raise

A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay. Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.

Considering thousands of Americans are facing layoffs and downsizing, does Congress deserve a raise this year?

The ]Council for Citizens Against Government Waste introduced a bill to reject the pay increase, but it died in committee. Tell Congress what you think by voting here:

Congress DESERVES a pay raise:

www.congress.org...

Congress should REJECT the pay raise:

www.congress.org...

Say you love Israel and they will give you money.

Kind of like, celebrities giving endorsements and pro athletes having sponsors.

2008 Pro-Israel PAC Contributions to Congressional Candidates (in PDF format)

reply to post by jam321

Personally, I have to agree with. I think they should forgo their regular retirement plan and be forced to go on social security. I am sure that once they see how the system really works and more importantly affects them, social security would be fixed in a heartbeat.

That wouldn't do any good. Most of them are rich and wouldn't need social security anyway.

BUt yes..congress was clever into voting their raises ahead of schedule..this way they don't need to vote everytime they want more money...which for some damn reason they don't seem to have enough. Greedy SOB'S!!

Social security isn't fixable at this point unless they tax the hell out of us...which by the way is coming...along with inflation. Either way the working man is screwed.