Congress gives itself great benefits and top pay

Congress gives itself great benefits and top pay

EDITOR:

Where is the outrage of the taxpayers at the $4,700 per year raise our elected representatives in Congress pocketed without even a token apology? Now that the second month of the year has arrived they have pocketed more than my entire year’s cost-of-living increases.

These expenses include health club membership. Theirs is free. I pay for mine. They get free haircuts. I would have to pay for mine. They have platinum health care packages — free. I must pay over 9 percent of my Social Security each year. They get housing expenses and a large stipend for travel. I must pay my own housing and any bit of travel I can afford. The list could fill an entire page of your newspaper.

Then after all this, the taxpayer is the only employer in the land who allows their employees to take unlimited time off with pay to look for another job. An example is three U.S. senators who took the better part of two years to seek the job as resident of the White House with only token appearances at their place of employment.

We also have several people the taxpayers refused to hire that get appointed by their party leaders. Now they are incumbent, which translates to what university professors call tenure. They are at the Golden Trough for life.

I don’t believe that any of those who represent the Mahoning Valley have done one thing that deserves a raise. In fact most of them would be fired for their performance if they were in the private sector.

It has been said that you get what you pay for, but I don’t think we are getting what we are paying dearly for. It is also said that money can buy anything. Money has certainly bought our political system.

The Mahoning Valley taxpayers may be a bit different in the one respect of their operating under a one party system for as long as I can remember. It will certainly get worse if the many people who want a cradle-to-grave entitlement from their government realize they only need to work one day a year. That would be election day.

ROBERT J. HUSTED

New Springfield