We need to start somewhere!!

[Ratickle]

Time to start trimming the national budget....





Salary of retired US Presidents .............$180,000 FOR LIFE

Salary of House/Senate .......................$174,000 FOR LIFE

Salary of Speaker of the House .............$223,500 FOR LIFE

Salary of Majority/Minority Leaders ....... $193,400 FOR LIFE

Average Salary of a teacher ............... $40,065 per year

Average Salary of Soldier DEPLOYED IN AFGHANISTAN ....... $38,000 per year with minimal retirement

I think we found where the cuts should be made!

 

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

It would be nice if the law makers actually did something other then , posturing, finger pointing and self serving.

I am so tired of the speaker telling us what the American people want. We want you all to do something productive.

 

[fund razor]

It would be nice if the law makers actually did something other then , posturing, finger pointing and self serving.

I am so tired of the speaker telling us what the American people want. We want you all to do something productive.

And, unlike them, we are actually modeling the behavior we seek to promote.

 

[rschap1]

I don't have an answer, but...
we need WAY more than a start
Today's "system" is WAY f'd up
Too corrupt
Too self serving
Too many politicians with no idea of serving their constituents

 

[old377guy]

My checklist - when was the last time I:
Attended a town hall meeting?
Campaigned (yep, go door to door, etc) for a candidate I believed in?
Attended a rally?
Volunteered for a community cause that put me in touch with other citizens?
Ran for any position where I could input my opinion in policymaking?
Wrote a letter to a new outlet?
Participated in any kind of prayer service for our leaders? or prayed personally for them?
Wrote a letter or expressed my opinion to my elected representative (yikes - do I know who they are)?
Dang, I'm falling short over here

 

[MOBILEMERCMAN]

Can someone explain to me. How is it the conservatives are not hypocrites? They are against entitlement programs while they receive pay for life. Thye are paid well for what they are supposed to do. However the work less and less, and remain ENTITLED to pay for life. Plus many of them move on to consult or lobby after their terms. How is that different then someone who collects unemployment and continues to work under the table? They police them selves on ethics issues while they profit from inside trading. It is sickening when they stand in front of the camera and preach about what the people want as they do nothing. When they do actually pass a bill. It is often at the last minute leaving no time to actually read the hundreds or thousands of pages thus never actually reading what they pass. When it finally does get read it is full of various pork spending. TOTAL BS. The conservatives IMO are ruining the country. The are living in the past. The are protecting their rich buddies they have created legal ways to dodge taxes and they are holding up any progress to get with the times. I don't think they are that different then then the various dictators around the world. Self serving, profiting from the public, blinding the public from their BS. They are in bed with the media and the large corporations. TOTAL BS.

How are they not hypocrites?

 

[old377guy]

Maybe one of the root issues is found in the phrase "To Serve". I don't pretend to know how it would work out as a practical matter, but how would it play out if those elected to "serve" did exactly that? What would it look like if there was a corps of individuals who gave of themselves to the betterment of the republic? Something along the lines of the Peace Corps only in the arena of policy making? A dear friend of mine handed me a quote he came across a number of years ago about the dynamics of running an organization in a different light. The quote was something along the lines of " ...our leaders are but trusted servants.....and our ultimate authority is a loving God as He may express Himself in our joint deliberations.... Kinda interesting.

 

[Ratickle]

Can someone explain to me. How is it the conservatives are not hypocrites? They are against entitlement programs while they receive pay for life. Thye are paid well for what they are supposed to do. However the work less and less, and remain ENTITLED to pay for life. Plus many of them move on to consult or lobby after their terms. How is that different then someone who collects unemployment and continues to work under the table? They police them selves on ethics issues while they profit from inside trading. It is sickening when they stand in front of the camera and preach about what the people want as they do nothing. When they do actually pass a bill. It is often at the last minute leaving no time to actually read the hundreds or thousands of pages thus never actually reading what they pass. When it finally does get read it is full of various pork spending. TOTAL BS. The conservatives IMO are ruining the country. The are living in the past. The are protecting their rich buddies they have created legal ways to dodge taxes and they are holding up any progress to get with the times. I don't think they are that different then then the various dictators around the world. Self serving, profiting from the public, blinding the public from their BS. They are in bed with the media and the large corporations. TOTAL BS.

How are they not hypocrites?

You have only one thing wrong in your diortation, the so-called conservatives out there, are not really conservatives. If they were, they would not stand for the very list of issues and appropriations you bring up......

 

[Bobcat]

As a result of a Judicial Watch filing under the Freedom of Information Act, the USAF released documents detailing House Speaker Pelosi's use of United States Air Force aircraft between March 2009 and June 2010.

The data are published in the Judicial Watch Verdict of December 2010, Volume 16, Issue 12.

Here are the main highlights revealed by the USAF.

Keep in mind that all the data below relate to United States Air Force aircraft used by one woman over a sixteen month period.

Several of these flights included Ms. Pelosi's guests, such as grown children, grandchildren, various in-laws, friends and hangers-on. Over 95% of the trips were between the west coast and Washington DC , for what you might call a commute between home and the office. READ it and WEEP!!

Total trips: 85 over a 68 week period, or 1.25 average trips per week.
Total mileage: 206,264 miles, or 2,427 average miles per trip.

Total flying time: 428.6 hours, or an average of 5 hours per trip.

Cost to the taxpayers: $2,100,744, or $27,715 per trip, or $1,285,162 per year!

Cost of in flight food and alcohol: $101,429; $1,193 per trip; $62,051 per year.

On one junket to Baghdad, according to the Air Force report, she had the aircraft bar stocked with Johnny Walker Red Scotch, Grey Goose Vodka, E&J Brandy, Bailey's Irish Cream, Maker's Mark Whiskey, Courvoisier Cognac, Bacardi Rum, Jim Beam Whiskey, Beefeater Gin, Dewar's Scotch, Bombay Sapphire Gin, Jack Daniels Whiskey, Corona Beer
and several varieties of wine. This was obviously a very important "gubment bidness" trip.

Evidence generally speaks for itself, and in Ms. Pelosi's case it speaks the language of abuse and (evidently) a serious familial drinking problem, for in a single year she and her spawn drank an amount in excess of the net income of the average employed American!

When she said, "... If the stimulus doesn't pass, five hundred million people might lose their jobs...", I thought she was unintentionally revealing her ignorance. I'm now more inclined to think she was pickled.

Even though she can no longer abuse the USAF, she can either fly on her broom, or fly Southwest Airlines, where bags fly free.