December 06, 2006

Democrats hate families? Next year, members of the House will be expected in the Capitol for votes each week by 6:30 p.m. Monday and will finish their business about 2 p.m. Friday, Hoyer said. "Keeping us up here eats away at families," said Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), who typically flies home on Thursdays and returns to Washington on Tuesdays. "Marriages suffer. The Democrats could care less about families -- that's what this says." Work Monday through Friday? OMG WTF?!

Typical political rhetoric, yes, but as the majority shifts this next political season, I'm interested to see how the Republicans as well as the talk-radio and Faux News pundits spin the newly-Democratic-majority initiatives. Such as working more than one-and-a-half days per week. During a "war". For much of this election year, the legislative week started late Tuesday and ended by Thursday afternoon -- and that was during the relatively few weeks the House wasn't in recess. . . By the time the gavel comes down on the 109th Congress on Friday, members will have worked a total of 103 days. That's seven days fewer than the infamous "Do-Nothing Congress" of 1948.

posted by petebest 17 years ago
  • Nooooooo!!!! I can't beleive that our elected politicians are somehow expected to actually work for a living! Luckilly they will just vote themselves another raise just like they do every year...
  • WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A week after the GOP-led Senate rejected an increase to the minimum wage, Senate Democrats on Tuesday vowed to block pay raises for members of Congress until the minimum wage is increased. "They can play all the games the want," Reid said derisively of the Republicans who control the chamber. "They can deal with gay marriage, estate tax, flag burning, all these issues and avoid issues like the prices of gasoline, sending your kid to college. But we're going to do everything to stop the congressional pay raise." Despite record low approval ratings, House lawmakers Tuesday embraced a $3,300 pay raise that will increase their salaries to $168,500. The 2% cost-of-living raise would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate. . . . As part of an ethics reform bill in 1989, Congress gave up their ability to accept pay for speeches and made annual cost-of-living pay increases automatic unless the lawmakers voted otherwise.
  • "When I'm here, people call me Mr. Congressman. When I'm home, people call me 'Jack, you stupid SOB, why did you vote that way?' It keeps me grounded." I'm sure there are lots of people in Washington who would be willing to call him a stupid SOB on a regular basis. Problem solved.
  • So by this logic, in order to lower the divorce rate in American, we need to legislate a shorter work week. And have a recess from work every few months to go home and campaign. I say go for it!
  • That's so sweet, Mr. Soon-to-be-Former Georgia Congressman. They should fly all servicepeople back from Iraq every Thursday so they could have weekends with their families, too.
  • "The defining theme of the waning days of Republican congressional rule is a GOP leadership hawking an abortion restriction that has no chance of becoming law, loading up tax breaks with unrelated matters and dumping an unfinished budget on Democrats. And it's all with the blessing of the White House." Awesome.
  • Zorgon, you nailed it... nothing else left to be said about this... Although there may be some value in sending all legislators home 5 days a week and use their D.C. homes to house the homeless.... perhaps some of those folks displaced by Katrina that still don't have anyplace to live...
  • "Keeping us up here eats away at families." "Marriages suffer" "The Democrats could care less about families." I think they're hoping to get a slightly mangled sound byte out of this and skew the whole thing. Actually, no I don't. I they continue to be spoiled little brats.
  • I want a bumper sticker "I'm a Democrat, and I hate families"
  • If he doesn't like his job requirements he needs to find another job.
  • I think that Congress, the President, etc should all be shitty jobs. Long hours, low pay, minimal perks. Maybe that would keep some of the power-hungry douchebags out. No, I don't really believe that, but it would be nice...
  • "I'm a Democrat, and I eat families"
  • "I'm a Democrat, and I defenestrate families"
  • "I'm a dinner crate, and I ate phlanges."
  • I'm Denny Crane!
  • "I'm a Democrat, and I fake similes!"
  • I'm a dancing crane, or some facsimile
  • What is the average salary in the United States? "the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the average annual wages in the U.S. as $36,764 for 2002." CEO compensation per $ of net profit, 1960-2000
  • That's absolutely sick-making.
  • Some years ago a salary management technique was bandied about by consultants where jobs were classified according to how they compared to that of the top executive. Things like "decision making authority" and "interface with customers" were ranked. It vanished as abruptly as it appeared since almost everyone merited a raise, but I thought it was an interesting idea. And, yeah. Is there a point where a CEO makes more money than he can use in several lifetimes? How big a house does one need, and so on? I think it's easier to deal with someone's status like that of Bill Gates since they were entrepreneurs, but what about the guy who worked his way up from Corporate Legal Guru or International Sales Manager? Are their decision making abilities suddenly quadrupled even before bonuses and stock options? (Disclaimer: I also thought zero-sum budgeting was an interesting idea. The idea that a manager could tell the powers that be what output they could expect based on the amount of $$ allocated to their efforts seemed pretty sensible to me. Another idea which died aborning.)
  • Bush sucks.
  • Gee, guess that really does wreck politico families, getting off at 2:30 on Friday. Of course, the poor buggers who work two jobs, still can't pay the bills, and never see their kids don't merit that same consideration. Selfish stupid lazy bastards
  • 103 days * 8 hours per day (generous) = 872 / $168,500 = 193.23 per hr. US Minimum wage = $5.15 per hr.
  • The assholes who just gave themselves a raise to $193 an hour haven't raised the minimum wage since 1997. Eight million people in the US work at or below minimum wage. Map of state-by-state minumum wages. "Where Federal and state law have different minimum wage rates, the higher standard applies." Map of electoral votes in the 2004 election.
  • I heard the figure of 67 total days for this Congress which would mean that the 103 days here were not "full" days. Unless there's that big of a discrepancy out there in recording when Congress is in session.
  • I think the whole idea of living in your district while doing your job in D.C. has become preposterous. The excuse is to stay in touch with your constituency, but the reality is an excuse not to be productive. If your family doesn't want to relocate, leave them behind...or don't take the job. The same choices given to anyone who takes a job across the country, or is transferred. What did Senators/Congressmen do before there were airplanes? Somehow I don't think they horsebacked it back and forth from the Dakotas every week...
  • You know in this modern era of the technology stuffs, they don't even really need to be in Congress. Of course having them all together like that makes the lobbyists job of buying votes so much easier.
  • IF only there were some way to communicate with people who lived miles away... Maybe if these members of congress have to start relying on the phone and broadband internet to keep in contact with families they might have some motivation to make us catch up with the rest of the civilized world with our internet and cell phone technology!
  • I would like to point out that it would cost a LOT of money to build a tube all the way from DC to Alaska.
  • Y'know Ralph, I was going to reply with a comment about that Alaskan Senator's $320 million dollar "Bridge To Nowhere". But I couldn't remember the Senator's name. His name is Ted Stevens, and in conjunction with "threatening" to leave the Senate if they reappropriated the money for his bridge (linking a town of 8,900 with a town of 50) for Hurricane Katrina relief, he was also the source of the brilliant "The Internet is a series of tubes" comment. Then I realized you knew that already. Then I read he's also the Fffffine gentleman who refused to swear in the oil company executives when they were testifying about "Tricky" Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force. Class act, he.
  • And yes, you Republican haters out there, he's a Republican. It's not like there's some link between being a Republican Congressperson under the Bush administration and gross abuses of power. So just settle down.
  • For that bridge in Alaska, have they measured how expensive a state-of-the-art, completely safe catapult would be? I would be far more likely to go out of my way to the island that uses a catapult to get people to it than I would the island that has an expensive bridge. Can someone do a cost analysis on the catapult, please?
  • mm hmm . . . anwhymm uh huh . . . mmmm nh whm . . carry the two . . Ah! $320 million dollars. Plus $200,000 for the estimate.
  • >>It's not like there's some link between being a Republican Congressperson under the Bush administration and gross abuses of power. Funny, I'd say it's the most direct and reliable link between any two things I've ever seen in my lifetime...