Comments on: No budget, no pay: An incredible idea whose time has come?

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 06:58:13 +0000

They are. And I think it’s safe to say that few of them pull down $170 grand a year. Perhaps the same “IOU” papers could be given to Congressmen.

After all, why become a park ranger, if you know that your pay, through no fault of your own, could be arbitrarily stopped? Or a fireman? Or an SEC inspector? Somehow these arguments carry a lot less weight when you start to look at them seriously.

“For some park rangers, $24,000 a year is barely enough to get by upon, even if their spouse works full-time.”

By: Danny Adams

Danny Adams — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 01:37:33 +0000

Yes, how is it exactly that federal workers don’t get paid if we hit a budget stonewall, but Congress does? Aren’t they federal workers as well?

I don’t know how much the pay freeze would hurt, considering how many of them are millionaires, but it might at least be an ongoing insult to their pride.

By: Jon

Jon — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 21:36:12 +0000

“For some lawmakers, the $174,000 congressional salary is barely enough to get by on, especially if a spouse doesn’t work”

Somehow I’m not very sympathetic. In many families where the spouse works, it’s because they *have* to, not by choice. If representatives’ spouses have to work, well, I guess they’d better roll up their sleeves and get to it.

Even after taxes, that has to be north of $10,000 a month. Just what sort of mortgages are they paying?