Congressman Hank Johnson - Democrat: 'We Earn' Our $174K Salary".

Rep. Hank Johnson: 'We Earn' Our $174K Salary

(CNSNews.com) - Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) says members of Congress "earn" their $174,000 per year salary (plus benefits) and that this compensation is “not elaborate."

"The benefits and salary that we get, we earn," Johnson said at the Annesbrooks HOA Candidate Forum in Georgia in October. "It’s not elaborate, it’s just a bunch of poppycock that a lot of people have spread around trying to get us to hate our own government and our government representatives.”

Being a puppet of the lobbyists, special interests and Party bosses takes a lot of hard work. Its completely understandable that these tireless public servants vote themselves pay raises while the rest of America goes bankrupt.

Lets not forget about the incredible healthcare and lifelong pension benefits.

His office is getting a call in the morning.

IMHO, this particular Representative actually deserves more than the near $200k/year. If it werent for his genius, Guam may have capsized:

sure they're worth it,....

only while they're in office.

the problem is that they get payed after they are no longer in office which is B.S. they need to figure out how to retire like the rest of us.

I think the key problem here is this man and those who sit beside and around him
do no understand what the word EARN means, they have rarely if ever EARNED
anything at all, the world economy is falling apart because of their legal apathy.

No i take part of that back, they have all EARNED a prison sentence for treason
in my opinion, not a single one should be spared, every last one is either in on
it or complicit by lack of sufficient force to stop said crimes, if we were to start
seeing these man take honest stances on these real issues and be thrown
out or in prison because the refused to play ball it wouldn't take long for people
to finally see the truth, that we have to stop our out of control, irreproachable
government.

they serve the people, no one else, nothing else, the people. if the people deem
them to be unacceptable at their position then they are, period. the problem
is there is no way for the people to have a fair choice of candidate because
running for any of these offices is now simply a matter of money and not
ability to do the job, for goodness sake we had bush jr as president, does
anyone on this earth honestly think the man was intelligent enough to run
a dairy queen even?

i wanted so badly to respond to this topic but all i could muster up about the claim is.. HA!!! i know they don't believe their own BS and i'm a little angry over the implication that i am made to believe that i am dumb enough to believe it. i don't get it.. we spend our entire lives with what seems like our main purpose in life is to kill ourselves making other people wealthy beyond comprehension? wtf is wrong with us? rethink what you do and what you spend your hard earned money on everyone, here's what i did.. i used to take my family to the movies every weekend so one day i added up just one single year of an average night at the movies and after i picked up my jaw from my tally, that weekend was the last time we went to the movies and at the end of that same year i bought my family a 12ft x 24ft in-ground swimming pool!! anyway.. the morel to my story is.. "wtf is wrong with us??!!" aside from good old hank and his "$174K Salary" is pacino and de niro really worth what they make? yeah, yeah i know.. almost, i love'em to. haha

It's hard work, selling out the USA. You may start out straight but that can't last long. If a congressman were legit, he would quit but they all feed off the system and get rich. The USA has become a completely perverted nation. There is no such thing as a good guy with power. They are all corrupt.

They should make no more than any other public servant.

Enlisted, postal workers, cops, all make far less (corruption and nepotism aside) while their positions remain sought after and still loaded with good benefits such as healthcare and the ability to retire at 50.

Cap them all and the POTUS at 50K and treat any lobbyist or PAC donations as bribery and send them to prison.

I feel like 175k is entirely to much for a Congressman. I could live with it if there were term limits though, but there aren't so I'd like to give my idea on how much they should be. I think Congress should be paid an average of the mean income in their home district and the median income for DC. Also, the only pension they should get is Social Security and whatever they themselves set aside like the rest of us. Congress should also be forced to use Tri-Care, the DoD medical system, or maybe even be forced to use Medicaid for their health insurance unless they choose to pay for their own plan out of their pocket

The ability to spend a career in Congress being well paid and then going on to is one of root causes of the political rot that we have in this country. A maximum of three terms as a Representative and two as a Senator would keep anyone except someone able to win 3 elections for the House and two in the Senate AND THEN GO ON TO WIN PRESIDENT or Vice President for at least one term from accumulating 20 Years of "service".

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


No, they should earn the amount that the average family takes in, in their district and/or state.
That should include all Mayors, City Council, Senators, Congress, Governors, Vice Pres, Pres and cabinet members.
That would create a fire under their butts to get the economy back on track.

why are we paying them at all? if you hire someone to do a job and they fail to accomplish what you wanted done, do you pay them anyway? hell no you don't, you have them do the work or you throw them out. not our legislators though, we give them raises when they don't do their friggin job and they have the audacity to say they earn it?

This guy has only missed 237 of 5081 recorded or roll call votes in his tenure. That is 5%. Pretty good participation.

His mistake is speaking for the others that only see action half of the time.

In a society which is solely based on consumption, you have to ask what it is that these guys produce. If there is nothing for consumers to consume from congress, than they are not worth the expense by the rules of the current capitalist state.

If America changes its position on value, then perhaps these guys will find themselves useful again. Right now they are a cost burden to our citizens and typically only supporting corporate interests in their district.

The hell you do Johnson.

I earn my pay. Up at 0400 don't come home to my wife till 2200. When I deploy I won't come home at all and I'll be shot at at the behest of decisions you made.

I don't mind doing my job, but don't pretend for a second that you earn your extorted taxpayer paycheck. You don't work for the people. I do.

So we are suppose to thank them for screwing us over?

So they work hard for that paycheck that screws us over?

The only thing congressman earn is the contempt of the American people.