No wonder the party wanted the video censored. How embarrassing that Wisconsin allows it’s politicians live with such poverty wages.
First the Republican Party in Polk County, Wisconsin, pulled the tape of Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) fretting about making ends meet on his $174,000 a year salary from its own website. Now they want it gone from the whole Internet. For a couple hours, the local county GOP was successful. But we’ve put an excerpt of the video back up.
A day after TPM posted the video we obtained of Duffy talking about his salary at a Polk County town hall meeting earlier this year, the Polk County GOP contacted the video provider we used to host the video, Blip.tv, and demanded the video be taken down.
The tape caused a stir for Duffy, a first-term conservative best known for his past as a reality TV show star on MTV’s The Real World. Democrats flagged the comments about his taxpayer-funded salary (which is nearly three times the median income in Wisconsin) and criticisms began to flow Duffy’s way.
In the clip, Duffy is asked whether he’d support cutting his own salary. Duffy says he would, but only as part of a plan where all public employees’ salaries would be cut. He then said that the $174,000 in salary (not including benefits) he receives is a squeeze for his family of seven to live on:
come to Canada where the highest form of life – according to left wing types is a government job where all you do is put in time , accept no responsibility for your actions – you are protected from any legal action or responsibility as a “crown corporation”
You then put in time for your eventual “wonderful pension” and make pretty graphs and charts of artificial numbers proving that your department deserves more and greater funding and that without you and your department the world would end
What an evil cancer
He’s already given up _years_ of highly paid corporate employment just so that he can shill for his masters and go back a few rungs higher on the ladder. What more sacrifice do you want him to make?
Now teachers, those are the real parasites.
I suspect supporting a family of nine probably IS a bit tough on $175K/year. On the other hand, nobody begged him to run…
Of course, I’m on the record as thinking we ought to cut all their salaries to subsistence level. Hell, they always seem to make a few million on the side, anyway.
“I’m on the record as thinking we ought to cut all their salaries to subsistence level.”
Because salaries so low as to only attract the dregs makes for good policy.
I have no problem with paying people the value of their job. $175,000 is not an unreasonable amount for a Congressman, especially when you consider this is often a salary drop for many of them.
BUT, for these same people to turn around and then claim civil servants are paid too much is hypocrisy. Civil servants are more often paid less for their education than the private sector pays. For example, a senior lawyer in the the Federal government is paid <$130,000 while someone with similar private experience would be double that. Other professions are similarly placed.
“Because salaries so low as to only attract the dregs makes for good policy.”
Ah yes.. Because the high salaries we pay them now bring in the quality people. LOL
I might add that it is rare for a Federal Judge to get a pay raise when joining the bench.
He is poor by republican standards, no amount of money is ever enough for them. Maybe his wife should have used birth control so his family didn’t get that big. As a retired guy I would like to know where I can send him a donation.
Well, the outlines of the discussion are set: how do we get the best politicians to serve? Obviously, what they get paid (alone) doesn’t address the issue. some kind of combination of desire to give public service while not sacrificing too much is the key?
Its PUBLIC FINANCING and a good dash of anti-conflict of interest backed up with jail for violations.
Won’t happen.
“Because salaries so low as to only attract the dregs makes for good policy.”
I don’t think New Hampshire’s state reps are any worse than anywhere else.
Let’s all pitch in and help him out:
http://i.imgur.com/17jxH.jpg
Poor Bastard!
It is amusing to see someone complain that $175,000 is ruff to live on.
Given that the average household income in his district is likely under $55,000, perhaps his constituents should question if he has any idea about what is actually going on in America.
That said however I do not think our Congressman & Senators are over paid. They should be paid well however the jobs should be temporary – limited to a few terms.
It’s OK to pay ten million each, if it leads to Congressman who will not be bought, and this lowers the budget by at least 6 billion dollars. However, given the amount being spent, I would expect a budget cut of at least 600 billion dollars.
The only point in defense of these Congressman is they generally have to get a second house in the DC area, so that is adding to costs a bit.
Well the article says 6 kids, not 9, but still WAY too many. We know what causes children these days.
We should cut his balls off so that he can no longer add to the population, rather than give him a raise.
But look at the presidency. There’s a job that pays $400,000 annually (that’s $1,600,000 for 4 years) and it costs at least $10,000,000 to get the job! Something’s rotten this side of Denmark!
This is a perfect anecdote about the face of the GOP. Greedy, clueless, and disingnuous.
But it’s the teachers that are the greedy ones, right?
#4 Seal Awyer – I only submit that our forefathers anticipated patriotic TEMPORARY service rather than the political career Congress has become. They should come in for a couple of terms and then go home to their families and farms or law practice. It’s a damned shame nobody wrote term limits into the Constitution! I do not believe they should have out-of-pocket expenses to serve. Nor do I think they should be entitled to extra luxury. They are served the best food for a price that most of us couldn’t slap together a bologna sandwich for. They work soooo hard, they go to the tax-payer supported gym for a swim and a rubdown. Etc.
Okay. Feed the kitty. Give ’em a big raise but attach it to a rule that says they are never EVER allowed to meet with a lobbyist without a couple of witnesses in attendance. Pass a law and enforce it vigorously that condemns “reverse” conflict of interest – i.e. taking a job with a company for whom you intentional or even inadvertently helped while you were in office.
Oh, and judges? They should all be given huge raises. I don’t like that many judges are elected. Who wants justice to be a popularity contest? By the way, along with that big bump in salary? A strongly enforced law against corruption. Doesn’t HAVE to carry the death penalty but I wouldn’t argue against it.
They wanted to pay him what he’s worth but there’s that thing they call the minimum wage law.
Just a reminder: He gets that salary for life, whether or not you vote him out. Still, throw the bums out.
#17, Animby, “It’s a damned shame nobody wrote term limits into the Constitution!”
Actually, if you read through the notes taken by Madison of the constitutional convention, you’ll see that the issue was well debated.
http://constitution.org/dfc/dfc_0000.htm
As example: starting around 17 July or so you see the issue of term limits for the President being debated. The original plan was to have him appointed by the Congress with eligibility for only a single term, but after it was decided the People were wise enough to choose him, the idea of limits was scrapped.
This is hilarious. The rich are fighting the rich for the beggars money.
The longer they shut government down, the longer I get to collect Social Security.
Grandpa Simpson, I think they stop your handout checks once the government shuts down. Not that you deserve them.
#14 MikeN said “The only point in defense of these Congressman is they generally have to get a second house in the DC area..”
Many in congress do not get a house. Three or four will get together and rent a small apartment. A few even crash in their office. Not that any in congress spend that much time in DC.
Here is a link to the House of Representatives schedule from House Majority leader Eric Cantor. (you need scripts enabled to see schedule. the shaded days are “in session”.)
http://majorityleader.house.gov/Calendar/
#20 Sea Lawyer. Thank you for that link. Very interesting. Got my reading cut out for me for a few days. Seriously, thanks.
# 19 B. Dog said, “He gets that salary for life” Not exactly true. He has to serve for five or more years to become eligible for a pension and then he has to be over 50. Then the payment is determined by averaging the top three years of income. The beginning retirement payment cannot be more than 80% of his final salary. And he could be easily voted out prior to being eligible for retirement benefits.
Serves you right, Wisconsin. As a general rule of thumb, I never hire someone from an MTV reality show unless one of the job requirements is getting drunk and throwing up on my couch.
#24 omg! 5 years for an 80% pension. That’s criminal. Get reelected once and it’s 140k for life.
Stopher – I didn’t say it was a good thing.
They should cut those pensions. So the worse Congress does, the more incumbents get voted out, and the more the government is on the hook.
>A few even crash in their office.
And when they do, they get hectored by Lawrence ODonnell like they’re a member of the Swift Boat team.
http://american-conservativevalues.com/blog/rep-jason-chaffetz-accused-lawrence-odonnell-evading-taxes-sleeping-office.html
Reading, the link, it’s clear that Sean Duffy is claiming hardship RIGHT NOW. He has only received one paycheck out of that 174000 salary.