Congress is closed

My Dad always used to say that any day Congress was not in session was a good day.  But I think even he would be appalled at the following information.

Congress “closed” today until after the November election even though their official calendar shows that they are still “open for business”. 

Between August 4 and “after the election” Congress will have been in session for a grand total of 8 days.   As members of Congress make  $174,000 per year, they will have been paid $5437.50 for each day they toiled on your behalf.  Not a bad gig. 

I suppose (although I am not doing so) that the House can be excused for its early departure as they have passed over a half a dozen bills that are simply languishing in the Senate.  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D. Nv.) will not let them come to the Senate floor…no discussion, no proposed amendments, no vote, no nothing.  Come on Senator Reid, bring them to the Senate floor and vote them down if you don’t like them.  After all, you have a majority.  To do nothing is reprehensible. 

Can we get our money back?

But, it gets better, for members of Congress that is.

During the course of this year, the House has been in session for an arduous 9 Fridays.  Not to be out done, the Senate has been in session for a back-breaking 3 Fridays.

And they wonder, or perhaps not, why their approval ratings are so low.

 

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SoundOffSister

The Sound Off Sister was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and special trial attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division; a partner in the Florida law firm of Shutts & Bowen, and an adjunct professor at the University of Miami, School of Law. The Sound Off Sister offers frequent commentary concerning legislation making its way through Congress, including the health reform legislation passed in early 2010.

6 Comments

  1. PatRiot on September 21, 2012 at 8:58 pm

    Bueller……..Bueller?



  2. wildcat on September 21, 2012 at 9:37 pm

    I want a refund !?? They all got paid for services they failed to perform.?? Doesn’t this fall under “larceny by fraud”??? Throw the crooks out in November !



  3. JBS on September 22, 2012 at 7:18 am

    These legislators have no shame.



  4. Plainvillian on September 22, 2012 at 10:40 am

    At the risk of being contrarian, let me agree with your father.? I might even submit we would be better served if we paid our congresscritters to not convene.
    While not a constitutional scholar, I’ll suggest the founders did not want but may have anticipated a professional political class running the Congress with Byzantine rules and legions of lobbyists, staff, and perpetual campaigning.? Early members of Congress were not paid handsomely, met briefly, and had to exert some sort of honest outside? effort to survive.?? All that changed in the mid-20th century, beginning with the New Deal when government had to “do something”.? Since then we have repeatedly elected intellectual pigmies and ethical cripples who will do anything in order to be seen as doing something for someone.? ?
    How do Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and their ilk compare to our early champions of the legislative process?? John C. Calhoun is remembered as a champion of ideas.? For what do we remember Frank and Dodd?? Would we have been worse off had we paid them to stay home?



  5. JollyRoger on September 22, 2012 at 9:07 pm

    “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is insession.”. Mark Twain



  6. JBS on September 24, 2012 at 8:15 am

    It is a good thing that Congress is adjourned. Now they can’t pass any laws to harm the country. They are still harming — they are out collecting the money from their “constituents.”?
    There are a lot of parallels between the Syndicate (i.e., the Mafia) and Congress.
    Money and Power . . .
    Personally, I thing that all of these folks should donate their salaries to charity.
    Mitt would cause a stir if he said he would donate his presidential salary! How about that?



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