There are some in Congress that give out bonuses to their staff at the end of each term as if was somebody else’s money. Oh, wait it is somebody else’s money. Yours.
April 4, 2012 at 10:54 am in Accountability, Bill Posey, GAN, House, News by Mark Hall 11 Comments
There are some in Congress that give out bonuses to their staff at the end of each term as if was somebody else’s money. Oh, wait it is somebody else’s money. Yours.
Some of our representatives do not see it that way. U.S. Congressional Representative Bill Posey is one. Returning every annual pay raise was not enough, there are other politicians who give all unspent revenue to their staff in bonuses. Posey returned all his left over funds along with his pay raise.
In 2008, the year before he came to Congress, Congress allowed a $4,700 pay raise to take effect onJanuary 1, 2009. Rep. Posey thought that was in poor taste and has returned that $4,700 to the Treasury each year. He has also helped lead efforts to block Congressional pay raises for 2010, 2011 and 2012. Because the House cannot withhold the raise from his pay check, Posey has to write a check for the full amount of $4,700 back to the U.S. Treasury for deficit reduction.
Along with returning his pay raise, Posey has returned over $500,000 to the U.S. Treasury over the last 3 years. This Congress, House Republicans cut all Congressional budgets by $100,000 (5%) in 2011 and another $100,000 (6%) in 2012.
The Congressman said “When I came to Congress, it was only natural for us to find ways to do more with less and keep a close eye on the bottom line of our office budget so we could return unused taxpayer dollars back to the general fund every year.”
The Congressman, staying true to his words, unlike other Representatives (like Pelosi) use their position to go on every junket on the taxpayers dime paid his own way on his last fact finding mission to Israel. His reasoning is, as he said, “Other policies that I continued from my days in the legislature are that I never accepted any gifts, I returned pay raises and paid my own way to special events. Back in 2009 I was part of a Congressional delegation toIsraeland paid for the trip myself, which took many by surprise.”
“I was under budget every month that I was a member of the state legislature,” said Congressman Posey who served eight years in the Florida House and eight in the Senate.
Whooo Hooo…. it’s like crack cocaine once you get that rush you will steal for more!!!! Thank you government whores ” Show me the money”!!!
Totally unforgivable, this is just like stealing from our children’s college fund to piss away in a slot machine. When are we going the stand up to these bandits!
it’s a good thing that the rest of the country doesn’t work like congress does. we’d be in a lot more TROUBLE than we are now.
The rest of the country CAN’T work like congress or we’d go to prison! They have the monopoly on printing or borrowing. They have the presses and are buying their votes with private sector production. It needs to stop.
Of note: Ron Paul’s congressional office returns substantial sums to the US Treasury each and every year. So, who’s the conservative?
As unforgivable as this wholesale give-away is, why are we – The Tea Party in particular – stupid enough to insist that this is unthinkable? Sex isn’t the only thing a whore sells, as Washington, DC knows all too well; the “uncontested Whore of Politics!”
Where does this fund come from that congress can take our money for bonus pmts.
Just like the current scandal with the gsa. The pool of money was not managed or accounting apparently did not have to be provided exactly how it was spent. Sadly this goes on more than we know in the gov.
Tax payers should have a accounting on how the money was spent, especially before our gov asks for more money. The government has always been poor managers of our money and when scandals come to light such as the gsa no one is ever accountable.
Where does it come from? I believe these “bonuses” are much like the budgets of other federal agencies. We should all know by now the horror stories wherein an agency, within a month of the fiscal year-end & having unspent money that was allocated to their agency, initiate a hoard of “authorized” spending to use up the excess so they can “show” the need for just as much or more in the next fiscal year.
So these congressional office budgets are spent on “whatever” they can “justify” in order to claim the need for the same or more the next time.
But it is the mass of ignorant voters and hoards of government employees too, who vote for those who will preserve their jobs, salaries, retirements, and cost of living adjustments that are leading this nation to the slaughter. None of the things mentioned can the private sector force upon anyone, not even the consumer!
The Constitution and solvency be damned!
Any politician should be held accountable for any money they spend. If they have funds they need to show where it went and why along with justifcation.