A "Few" Words About "Serving The People"

From around 1789 to 1815, Members of our U.S. Congress received a daily honoraria payment of about $6 while in session; and from 1818 to 1855, about $8 per day . . . again, “while in session.” With, back then, Congress typically in session legislating a few months each year, given that America’s Founding Fathers envisioned that being a Member of Congress would be a “part-time” job.

However, let us now do a bit of fast-forwarding to more recent times:

Today, a Speaker of the House, such as Nancy Pelosi, receives an annual salary of about $223,500. With the standard salary for a Member of Congress being about $174,000 per year. Members of Congress also receive a pension for up to 80 percent of their salary depending on how long they’ve “served.” They also become eligible for a pension after just five years in office. They can also earn outside income up to 15 percent of their salary. And, they receive more than $10,000 in subsidies from the taxpayers to help pay for health insurance. Therefore, the total pay and benefit package for a rank-and-file Member of U.S. Congress is estimated to be worth at least $200,000 per year . . . putting every Member of Congress in the top 3 percent of Americans based on income.

Our U.S. Congress typically schedules about 124 days of legislating per year, compared to the average American worker who works about 240 days per year. Therefore, Members of Congress are actually in Washington working just about half time . . . about 2.4 days per week.

However, Members of Congress say they actually work very hard because even though they only work 2.4 days per week on Congressional business in Washington, they must spend another 2.6 days (or more) meeting with constituents and raising money for re-election campaigns.

Nonetheless, being a Member of U.S. Congress, or a top Congressional staffer, can be a ticket to becoming fabulously wealthy as a lobbyist. And, according to OpenSecrets.org, some 427 former Members of Congress are now corporate lobbyists. In addition, almost 5,400 former Congressional staffers have left Capitol Hill to become federal lobbyists in just the recent 10 years. One report found that Members of Congress get a 1,452% pay raise on average when they become lobbyists. Former Congressman Billy Tauzin as just one example, was reportedly paid almost $5 Million per year to lobby for drug companies.

Is it any wonder, therefore, that a century ago, Washington, D.C. was a relatively small and sleepy town. Whereas, today, the Washington D.C. area has an estimated population of 6,000,000 and is the fastest growing and richest metropolitan area in America! And, of the top 10 richest counties in America, six are in the Washington, D.C. suburbs!

Likewise, is it any wonder, therefore, when concerned, fed-up, clear-thinking, patriotic American citizens elect a U.S. President to “drain the swamp” . . . that there has been, since day one of his (President Trump’s) presidency, an unrelenting and incessant cry and undertaking for “impeachment” from and by America’s most threatening enemy from within! From and by a “deep state” of corrupt and self-serving “politicians and unelected bureaucrats” hell-bent to maintain the status-quo! Under the insulting and nation-destructive pretense of “serving the people.”

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Source/Reference: The Conservative Caucus (a project of Americans for Constitutional Liberty).