This Congress as a whole, and our country in general are making their own war on poverty, and not in the pro-citizen way of the original laws in the ‘60s. Today’s is a war on the poor. This post is about bringing some sort of perspective back into the picture when it comes to our lawmakers.
Congress is wasting our taxpayer money. None of us should listen to any cuts that don't start with them. Here’s a few areas that they should look at.
Let’s start with Congressional hearings, the cost to taxpayers of hearings that often seem to offer little in terms of revelation, information or solution to any given problem, yet Congress collects their salary in this waste of time. Even if some hearings are worthy, some are meaninglessly long, some overlap other hearings as has been addressed in articles such as one written by Brian Montopoli for CBS News in 2012, “GSA scandal: Is Congress engaged in hearing overkill?” (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/gsa-scandal-is-congress-engaged-in-hearing-overkill/) (If you don’t remember what that scandal was even about, I guess your answer is pretty clear.)
It’s astonishing that Congress can argue against ANY program designed to ease the suffering of the poor and unemployed based on their performance and the sheer waste they are responsible for from the perks of better health insurance of which they find themselves deserving, better benefits than most Americans, to the pettiness of the fact that their gym remained open during the alleged government “shutdown.”
It’s time for a line-by-line analysis of every single cent of taxpayer money spent on our government representatives. Search articles like, “Congressional perks: Lawmakers’ most surprising benefits,” by Corbin Hiar, 11/23/11 from the Center for Public Integrity, (http://www.publicintegrity.org/2011/11/23/7495/congressional-perks-lawmakers-most-surprising-benefits).
The latest assertion, as gleaned from the Congressional Budget Office regarding employment in our country and somehow determining that Obamacare is a disincentive for people to work ignoring the horrendous track record our lawmakers have established in helping Americans get back to work, is idiotic.
Congress has decided that people in need of food stamps, people expecting that all the money they paid into Medicare, the promise that if they survived to older age they wouldn’t have to be bankrupted by medical bills, people who receive unemployment, ALL are up for axing to save a Federal buck. NOW is the time for them to begin axing their benefits.
Start with Obamacare. It shouldn’t matter that the lawmakers made it legal for the lawmakers to avoid Obamacare, it’s ridiculous and should be overturned in whatever fashion it needs to be. It shouldn’t matter that the lawmakers made it legal for the lawmakers to have rich pensions, benefits, death benefits off the backs of taxpayers, it should be overturned in whatever fashion it can be.
Based on job performance many of these lawmakers are more incompetent and lazier than any individual they're alleging has been "disincentivized" to work. It's absurd. If people continue to work for an impossibly low minimum wage which naturally Congress has not raised as they sing the praises of a work ethic that gives you a chance to live in poverty and maybe after working really hard you'll be less in poverty, then certainly Obamacare is not going to be a disincentive. It is this lack of respect for the people who put them in office that Congress has lost sight of. In fact, THEIR salaries are a drain on the taxpayer.
This post is my opinion and is a tirade, and these latest headlines are the reason for it. Time to cut Congress’ pay, perks, certainties that they have off taxpayers’ backs which they enjoy while doing their best to ensure a dismal future for the rest of the country.
