Tag Archives: Congress

May 16, 2013 · 5:40 AM

Four Better Ways To Spend The $55 Million Wasted On Votes To Repeal The Affordable Care Act

The irony seems to escape the GOP and their sycophants  in Congress.  They’ve implemented “sequestration” to curb superfluous spending yet waste $55 million dollars on trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act thirty-seven times…

Think Progress

For the 37th time since 2011, House Republicans will hold a vote to repeal Obamacare on Thursday, bringing the total cost of all of their failed repeal votes to roughly $55 million in taxpayer money, according to one estimate.

Last year, CBS News calculated that the number of hours spent on 33 repeal votes — then roughly 80 hours, or two full work weeks — cost taxpayers an estimated $48 million. Since then, Republicans have held three more votes (another $4.5 million) and will add another $1.5 million with their latest.

At a time when lawmakers have implemented $85 billion in across-the-board cuts on top of$1.5 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade, no dollar can be spared. And the country has serious health-related needs that could use funding. Here are some better health care uses for the more than $50 million these symbolic votes against the Affordable Care Act have wasted:

1. Restore cuts from sequestration to Title X family planning programs and Title V maternal and child health services. The National Women’s Law Center calculates that a 5 percent cut to the budgets of each program will reduce them by $15 million and $32.5 million, respectively. Rather than voting to repeal a bill that expands women’s access to preventative services, the House could use the money to expand them.

2. Double the Department of Justice’s budget for sexual assault services, which has currently been authorized a $50 million budget. The program gives money to states so that they can support rape crisis centers and other nongovernmental organizations that provide direct intervention, core services, and other assistance to the victims of sexual assault. Current funding is inadequate, as some states receive less than $300,000 and many programs lack the resources to meet victims’ needs.

3. Grant a request for $50 million to train 5,000 new mental health professionals as part of a new initiative to expand mental health treatment and prevention services. This proposal came in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting to address gaps in the mental health system.

4. Help states implement paid leave policies. President Obama included a $50 million State Paid Leave Fund in his 2011 budget to provide start-up support for states that want to enact paid leave for workers. More than 40 percent of workers don’t have access to paid sick leave, heading to work when they or their family members experience an illness, but this funding could help give them a better option.

The current Congress is on track to be the most unproductive since the 1940s, but still has time to hold votes that won’t result in actual legislative change. There are many other priorities lawmakers could focus on instead and better ways to spend taxpayer dollars.

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May 15, 2013 · 5:35 PM

Eric Holder blasts Rep. Darrell Issa: Your conduct is ‘inappropriate,’ ‘shameful’ and ‘unacceptable’ (VIDEO)

When Darrell Issa and his gang were trying to pin Fast and Furious on AG Eric Holder, the Attorney General sat there and took a hell of a lot of abuse from Issa and his cohorts.

This time Holder pushed back.  It’s about damn time…

The Examiner

As Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., pressed Attorney General Eric Holder for details about a phone call from Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, Holder lost his temper.

Holder interrupted Issa’s line of questioning and declared that he would not stop talking.

“No, I am not going to stop talking now,” Holder said after Issa tried to ask him a follow-up question.

“Mr. Chairman, would you inform the witness as to the rules of the committee?” Issa asked, speaking over Holder’s protest.

“It is inappropriate and too consistent with the way in which you conduct yourself as a member of Congress,” Holder continued. “It is unacceptable. It is shameful.”

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May 13, 2013 · 6:00 PM

Fifteen Differences Between Democrats And Republicans

According to…

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I’ve noticed over the years, there are some fundamental differences in the way Republican and Democratic politicians think. Here are just 15 examples.

Republicans fear that the government has too much control over corporations.

Democrats fear that corporations have too much control over our government. 

 

Democrats believe it benefits all of us to help the weakest and the poorest among us.

Republicans believe it benefits all of us to help the wealthiest and most powerful among us.

 

Democrats believe it benefits all of us to help the weakest and the poorest among us.

Republicans believe it benefits all of us to help the wealthiest and most powerful among us.

 

Republicans believe large corporations will always do what is best for the American people if the government stays out of the way. 

Democrats believe large corporations would disembowel you and sell your organs to the highest bidder if the government didn’t stop them.

 

Democrats believe everyone is entitled to health care regardless of their ability to pay.

Republicans believe everyone is entitled to jack squat if they can’t pay for health care.

 

Democrats believe too much of our money goes to crooked corporate executives who take government subsidies and pay themselves $80 million salaries. 

Republicansbelieve too much of our money goes to teachers who make $30,000 a year.

 

Democrats believe anything that helps the American people during a recession or a time of crisis is the true essence of patriotism.

Republicans believe anything that helps the American people during a recession or a time of crisis is the true essence of communism.

 

Democrats believe that we need to set high standards for clean air and drinking water.

Republicans believe that standards for clean air and water are burdensome over-regulation.

 

Democrats believe the President and Congress need to work together to create jobs during a weak economy.

Republicans believe that Congress should do nothing to create jobs and then blame the President.

 

Democrats believe that corporate polluters should be made to pay for the cleanup of their pollution.

Republicans believe that making corporations clean up their pollution is burdensome over-regulation.

 

Democrats believe our health care system exists solely for the purpose of making people healthy.

Republicans believe our health care system exists solely for the purpose of making a healthy profit.

 

Democrats believe Congress should be of the people, by the people and for the people.

Republicans believe corporations are the people.

 

Democrats believe that corporations have too much influence over Congress due to their lobbyists and huge campaign contributions.

Republicans believe the middle class has too much influence over Congress due to their voting and paying taxes.

 

Democrats believe we need to protect victims of corporate negligence by allowing Americans to file lawsuits against corporations.

Republicans believe we need to protect large corporations from lawsuits by Americans who’ve been victimized by them.

 

Democrats believe that the rich should be taxed more than the poor and middle class.

Republicans believe that the rich should be allowed to keep all their wealth, except for the millions in campaign contributions they give to politicians.

 

Democrats believe that too much money in politics produces corruption and destroys the American way of life.

Republicans believe that money and corruption in politics arethe American way of life.

 

These are just my observations from a lifetime of watching Democratic and Republican politicians. I’m sure some Republican will come up with their own clever list.

 

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May 11, 2013 · 4:14 PM

House GOP Votes To End Overtime Pay With ‘Working Families Flexibility Act’

Our Representatives are no longer average politicians who relate to their constituents.  They’re millionaires or at the very least wealthy men and women who spent a lot of money to get into office.  Many bought their seats in Congress usually with the help of special interests and sometimes with their own money.

What do they possibly know about hourly wages or the struggle of the working poor?  This bill is outrageous and I hope it doesn’t pass in the Senate, although that is doubtful since they’re all cut from the same economic cloth and have no clue about Americans who struggle to make ends meet on their hourly wages.   Fortunately, the Senate Democrats are the majority and may vote against this bill.

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The GOP-led U.S. House voted to allow employers to replace overtime pay, as currently required by the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), with compensatory time off, or comp time. This sounds great until the bill, inappropriately titled “The Working Families Flexibility Act,” is actually looked at. Despite its claim of increased flexibility, it will make it easier for employers to schedule lots of overtime without paying, and give workers far less flexibility in their lives.

While the comp time would be provided at the same time-and-a-half rate as the FLSA requires for overtime, it would hurt the many low-wage, hourly workers in this country who so frequently depend on overtime pay to make ends meet.

Employers must pay out any comp time no later than 31 days after the end of the company’s year or the end of the calendar year, whichever the company adheres to. While that may wind up being a fairly hefty chunk of pay all at once, it doesn’t help with weekly and monthly expenses for those who are used to depending on overtime pay, though an employee can request payment for any unused comp time at any time under this act.

Furthermore, that accrued and unused comp time is essentially an interest-free loan to the employer, right out of the employees’ pockets. Yes, employers have to pay if the time isn’t used, but they get a 30-day window, even if the employee requests to have comp time cashed out early. With that window, the employee may or may not see the money on their next paycheck, making it harder to plan and to meet unexpected expenses.

The bill also doesn’t contain provisions for allowing workers to use their comp time when they need it, say, for emergencies, sudden illness, parental obligations, surgery, etc. The FLSA is already woefully inadequate when it comes to providing for time off, paid or otherwise, and this does not touch on that issue at all. Ergo, an employer can pay its employees with comp time, but refuse to let them use it when they need it.

One analysis of the bill says it creates incentives for employers to overwork employees who agree to take comp time. Employees can bank up to 160 hours under the law, but those employees who don’t agree to it and want to keep getting overtime pay would probably not get the hours they’re looking for. Indeed, this bill also says nothing about having to provide overtime hours equally to employees regardless of their overtime or comp time status.

Much of that is wildly hypocritical considering Congress is only slated to be in session for 126 days this year. The phrase “overworked and underpaid” will apply to workers even more under this law, while Congress works less and less. They’re paid $174,000 per year to work for less than half of it.

There is also no recourse for employees who find themselves intimidated or coerced into agreeing to comp time, despite this bill’s prohibition against that. Their only recourse is to sue, which is expensive and time-consuming, and may or may not be successful. Employees who manage to get a class certification for such litigation would also likely find themselves with less-than-fair financial compensation from whatever settlement is reached, since that is the typical outcome of class-action lawsuits.

In other words, this law hamstrings hourly workers and puts the few remaining cards they have into the hands of their employers. It doesn’t help families, it hurts them, by continuing to erode workers’ rights.

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April 26, 2013 · 2:19 PM

12 Programs Congress Refuses To Save From Automatic Spending Cuts

This list puts Congress’ apathy toward the American people into perspective…

Think Progress

After thousands of flight delays across the country this week, the United States Senate voted Thursday night to give the Federal Aviation Administration the flexibility to keep the nation’s airports running smoothly. The delays were caused by the furlough of air traffic controllers, who were rotating off the job because of sequestration’s automatic budget cuts that began taking effect on March 1. The Senate legislation, which passed the House today and will be signed by President Obama, will allow the FAA to shift the burden of its cuts around, removing the need for controller furloughs and the delays that come with them.

That means lawmakers will be able to fly home for recess this weekend without any delays — and tourists and people who travel for business won’t have to experience the delays either. Unfortunately, though, Congress has shown no willingness to provide similar relief for the families that are being hammered by sequestration in other ways. Here are 12 programs that have experienced devastating cuts because Congress insists on cutting spending when it doesn’t need to — and that have been ignored by the same lawmakers who leaped to action as soon as their trips home were going to take a little longer:

1. Long-term unemployment: There are 4.7 million Americans who have been unemployed for longer than six months, but sequestration cut federal long-term unemployment insurance checks by up to 10.7 percent, costing recipients as much as $450 over the rest of the year. Those cuts compound the cuts eightstates have made to their unemployment programs, and 11 states are considering dropping the federal program altogether because of sequestration — even though the long-term unemployed are finding it nearly impossible to return to work.

2. Head Start: Low-income children across the country have been kicked out of Head Start education programs because of the 5-percent cuts mandated by sequestration, as states have cut bus transportation services and started conducting lotteries to determine which kids would no longer have access to the program, even though the preschool program has been proven to havesubstantial benefits for low-income children. In all, about 70,000 children will lose access to Head Start and Early Head Start programs.

3. Cancer treatment: Budget cuts have forced doctors and cancer clinics to deny chemotherapy treatments to thousands of cancer patients thanks to a 2 percent cut to Medicare. One clinic in New York has refused to see more than 5,000 of its Medicare patients, and many cancer patients have had to travel to other states to receive their treatments, an option that obviously isn’t available to lower-income people. Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) proposed restoring the funding, but the legislation so far hasn’t moved in Congress.

4. Health research: The National Institutes of Health lost $1.6 billion thanks to sequestration, jeopardizing important health research into AIDS, cancer, and other diseases. That won’t just impact research and the people who do it, though. It will also hurt the economy, costing the U.S. $860 billion in lost economic growth and at least 500,000 jobs. Budget cuts will also hamper research at colleges and universities.

5. Low-income housing: 140,000 low-income families — primarily seniors with disabilities and families with children — will lose rental assistance thanks to sequestration’s budget cuts. Even worse, the cuts could likely make rent and housing more expensive for those families, as agencies raise costs to offset the pain of budget cuts, and sequestration will also cut from programs that aid the homeless and fund the construction of low-income housing.

6. Student aid: Sequestration is already raising fees on Direct student loans, increasing costs for students who are already buried in debt. The budget cuts reduce funding for federal work study grants by $49 million and for educational opportunity grants by $37 million, and the total cuts will cost 70,000 college students access to grants they depend on.

7. Meals On Wheels: Local Meals on Wheels programs, which help low-income and disabled seniors access food, have faced hundreds of thousands of dollars in cuts, costing tens of thousands of seniors access to the program. Many of those seniors have little access to food without the program, but Congress has made no effort to replace the funding.

8. Women, Infant, and Children programs: WIC helps 9 million low-income women and children with nutrition and health care referrals. Among these women, the program has led to healthier births, a higher intake of important nutrients, and a strong connection to preventative services. Sequestration means that the program would have to cut off about 600,000 participants.

9. Heating assistance: The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) helps nearly 9 million households afford their heating and cooling bills. Sequestration will cut the program by an estimated $180 million, meaning about 400,000 households will no longer receive aid. These cuts come on top of$1.6 billion in reductions since 2010.

10. Workplace safety: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has long suffered from a lack of funds, which means its staff is so stretched that many workplaces go without an inspection for 99 years. The fertilizer plant that exploded in West, Texas, for example, hadn’t had a visit from OSHA since 1985. That will get worse, as sequestration will cut the agency’s budget by $564.8 million, likely leading to 1,200 fewer workplace inspections.

11. Obamacare: Sequestration cuts a number of important programs in the Affordable Care Act: $13 million from the Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan Program, or CO-OPs; $57 million from the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control program; $51 million from the Prevention and Public Health Fund; $27 million from the State Grants and Demonstrations program; and $44 million from the Affordable Insurance Exchange Grants program, or the insurance exchanges.

12. Child care: Child care costs can exceed rent payments or college tuition and waiting lists for getting assistance are already long. Yet sequestration will reduce funds even further, meaning that 30,000 children will lose subsidies for care. For example, Arizona will experience a $3 million cut to funding that will force 1,000 out of care.

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· 10:32 AM

SENATE: SORRY, POOR PEOPLE!

Senate fixes the (part of the) sequestration (that affects rich people)!

Washington is not just broken, it needs an exorcist!

Salon

Just in time for members to fly home, Congress averts the one cut it cares about. Hint: Not Head Start!

After a month or so of the sequestration budget cuts only affecting people Congress doesn’t really care about, the cuts hit home this week when mandatory FAA furloughs caused lengthy flight delays cross the country. Suddenly, sequestration was hurting regular Americans, instead of irregular (poor) ones! Some naive observers thought this would force Congress to finally roll back the purposefully damaging cuts that were by design never intended to actually go into effect. Those observers were.. sort of right! The U.S. Senate jumped into action last night and voted to… let the FAA transfer some money from the Transportation Department to pay air traffic controllers so that the sequestration can continue without inconveniencing members of Congress, most of whom will be flying home to their districts today. The system works! (For rich people, like I’ve been saying.)

The Washington Post says, “The Senate took the first step toward circumventing sequestration Thursday night” though in fact what they did was work to ensure that the sequester continues not affecting elites, who fly regularly. I am embarrassed that I did not predict this exact outcome in my column Tuesday morning. The Senate, which can’t confirm a judge without months of delay and a constitutional crisis, passed this particular bill in about two minutes, with unanimous consent. The hope is that the House can get it taken care of today, I guess in time for everyone to fly to Aspen or wherever people whom Congress listens to fly to on Fridays.

After that Congress will be done fixing all the various problems with the design and implementation of the sequestration:

But House action on a broader deal to undo the across-the-board cuts appears remote. House conservatives say much of the impact has been exaggerated by the White House, and they have relished the success of forcing visible spending cuts on a Democratic administration.

“I think it’s the first time we’ve saved money in Washington, D.C.,” said Representative Raúl Labrador, Republican of Idaho. “I think we need to move on from the subject.”

Move on, people who may become homeless! We fixed the airports, what more do you want?

There was a big to-do yesterday about a Politico story insisting — explosively! morning-winningly! — that Congress was trying to exempt itself from Obamacare. Because this is Politico, the story was based on equal parts misunderstanding of policy and desire to create a fuss. The actual story is that Republicans proposed forcing members of Congress and their staffs to only use healthcare plans created by Obamacare or available in the exchanges. Democrats passed the amendment, as a sort of fuck you. But the exchanges are designed for people who don’t have employers who pay for healthcare. Congressional staffers get employer-sponsored health benefits. The exchanges are explicitly not designed for employees of large employers who pay for healthcare, so some people are right now trying to figure out how to make sure staffers continue to get healthcare. It may end up not being a big deal, or it may require a tweak to the law. But it’s not a scandal. (Honestly it’s all a pretty good argument for ditching employer-based healthcare in favor of universal single-payer but then again everything is.)

But the fuss was already created. The story will live forever, and no amount of debunking in the world will kill the popular myth that Congress attempted to secretly “exempt” itself from Obamacare. So self-serving!

Their staffers are generally the poorest people members of Congress know, and trying to make sure their healthcare is paid for is seriously the closest our legislature gets to altruism. But while the story of Congress working to make sure its staffers don’t have to shoulder the entirety of their premium costs because of Republican political stuntmanship was treated as a scandal and an example of everything rotten about Congress, the story of Congress hurriedly making sure the well-off minority of Americans who fly regularly don’t get briefly inconvenienced — while ignoring the costs of brutal cuts on programs for low-income Americans facing housing or hunger crises — is treated as a wonderful and encouraging display of bipartisanship.

Have a great flight home, senators!

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April 15, 2013 · 2:34 PM

What country does the Tea Party represent?

What country does the Tea Party represent?

Salon

House Republicans are no longer swayed by public opinion, imperiling the GOP and grinding government to a halt

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

With an assist from some long-term demographic trends, House Republicans have redistricted, propagandized and policed themselves into another country.

As a result, they have become unmoored from the political incentives that typically drive law-makers’ decision-making process. Public opinion no longer sways them, and that is creating a potentially insurmountable problem for the party establishment’s efforts to broaden the GOP’s appeal beyond angry old white people.

House Republicans may care about the GOP’s national fortunes in the abstract, but too many are impervious to what the public at large wants because of the nature of the districts they represent. At the same time, a steady stream of spin from the conservative media provides insulation from the realities of American politics, and deep-pocketed outside groups punish Republicans for any deviation from right-wing orthodoxy.

This isn’t just a serious problem for establishment Republicans. It’s ground our government to a halt, as Congress is virtually incapable of action, even on issues where there is something approaching a consensus among the public at large — like universal background checks for firearm purchases, for example. They’re supported by 80-90 percent of voters, but face a steep uphill climb in the House.

How did this happen?

The Great Gerrymander of 2010

In 2012, Democratic House candidates got 1.4 million more votes than Republicans, but came away 33 seats short of the majority – only the second time since World War Two that such a reversal has taken place. That was the fruit of a well-funded, multi-year plan by the Republican State Leadership Committee to take over state houses before the 2010 Census, and control the redistricting process that followed.

And they gerrymandered with a vengeance. As Princeton University scholar Sam Wang noted, “although gerrymandering is usually thought of as a bipartisan offense… partisan redistricting is not symmetrical between the political parties.”

By my seat-discrepancy criterion, 10 states are out of whack: [Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin] plus Virginia, Ohio, Florida, Illinois and Texas. Arizona was redistricted by an independent commission, Texas was a combination of Republican and federal court efforts, and Illinois was controlled by Democrats. Republicans designed the other seven maps. Both sides may do it, but one side does it more often.

Surprisingly absent from the guilty list is California, where 62 percent of the two-party vote went to Democrats [which] exactly matched the [proportion of the] newly elected delegation.

Democrats Are “Inefficiently Distributed”

But, as a number of observers pointed out after the mid-terms, even this aggressive effort to redraw districts in their favor wasn’t quite enough to lock in Republicans’ control of the House. This is where the organic trend comes in. Political scientists Jowei Chen of the University of Michigan and Jonathan Rodden of Stamford explain (PDF) that as a result of migration and urbanization, Democrats tend to be “highly clustered in dense central city areas, while Republicans are scattered more evenly through the suburban, exurban, and rural periphery.” This results in what the authors call “unintentional redistricting,” with “a skew in the distribution of partisanship across districts such that with 50 percent of the votes, Democrats can expect fewer than 50 percent of the seats.”

Hyper-Partisan Districts

Those two trends have resulted in a dwindling number of competitive districts. As the New York Times’ numbers-guru Nate Silver pointed out, the number of “landslide districts” – which he defined as those that went for one party by 20 or more percentage points than the electorate as a whole – has doubled since 1992, while the number of swing districts has fallen from 155 to just 64 over the same period.

When you look at the racial composition of districts, the trend becomes even more pronounced. According to the Census Bureau, 111 House republicans represent districts that are at least 80 percent white.

Continue below the chart, here…

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March 8, 2013 · 1:51 PM

West Wing Week: 03/08/13 or “Jedi Mind-Meld”

The White House

This week, the President urged Congress to resolve harmful budget cuts and reduce the deficit in a way that helps grow the economy and strengthen the middle class, held his first Cabinet meeting of the second term, announced three key Cabinet nominations, and signed the Violence Against Women Act.

Friday, March 1st

  • The President answered questions from White House reporters about his plans to move the country forward in light of the harmful automatic budget cuts — known as the sequester — that threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs, and cut vital services, that are taking place because Republicans in Congress refuse to close loopholes that only benefit the wealthy and the well-connected.

Monday, March 4th

  • The President announced his nominees to lead the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Office of Management and Budget.
  • The President convened the 17th meeting with his Cabinet- the first of his second term, to discuss how each agency would address the sequester and its impact on American families.

Tuesday, March 5th

  • The President spent some time with the staff of the Office of Management and Budget, reflecting on the importance of the work they’re doing in light of the sequester.

Thursday, March 7th

  • The President and Vice President traveled to the Department of the Interior for the signing of the Violence Against Women Act, which continues to strengthen the criminal justice system’s response to crimes against women, including domestic violence, sexual assault and trafficking.
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February 13, 2013 · 8:10 AM

Obama Delivers One of the Best Speeches of His Presidency: a Tour de Force SOTU

obama-sotu-2013-5

obama-sotu-2013-5

I must say, I absolutely agree with the author of the following article, Jason Easley…

PoliticusUSA

The Obama vision for America was laid out in sweeping fashion. President Obama delivered what might be the greatest State of the Union address from a president in at least 25 years.

Why was Obama’s address so good? It laid out a real vision for the future.

The president took on broad issues like climate change,”The good news is, we can make meaningful progress on this issue while driving strong economic growth. I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will. I will direct my Cabinet to come up with executive actions we can take, now and in the future, to reduce pollution, prepare our communities for the consequences of climate change, and speed the transition to more sustainable sources of energy. Four years ago, other countries dominated the clean energy market and the jobs that came with it. We’ve begun to change that. Last year, wind energy added nearly half of all new power capacity in America. So let’s generate even more. Solar energy gets cheaper by the year – so let’s drive costs down even further. As long as countries like China keep going all-in on clean energy, so must we.”

Obama laid out the goal of slashing our energy waste in homes and business by 50% over the next 20 years, “I’m also issuing a new goal for America: let’s cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next twenty years. The states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make it happen.”

The president proposed a comprehensive infrastructure repair program that uses public and private capital, “I’m also issuing a new goal for America: let’s cut in half the energy wasted by our homes and businesses over the next twenty years. The states with the best ideas to create jobs and lower energy bills by constructing more efficient buildings will receive federal support to help make it happen.”

Continue reading…

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February 2, 2013 · 9:25 AM

11 Things Wrong With Congress

U.S. News & World Report

Capitol Hole

America needs to rally. Jobs are scarce, incomes are falling, and prosperity seems to be slipping away. Congress could help, but instead of bold new bipartisan ideas, the nation’s legislators have done little lately except argue. Here’s why Congress is so out-of-touch.

Too Many Rich People

About one percent of all Americans are millionaires, but roughly 46 percent of those serving in Congress are. There’s nothing wrong with being rich. But there is a problem when the people creating tax and economic policy fail to understand the financial stress a typical family faces.

Automatic Pay Raises

Every year, members of Congress get an automatic cost-of-living increase in their pay, which is now $174,000 per year—about 3.4 times as much as the average worker earns. For the last two years, Congress has voted to forego its annual raise. But even flat pay would be a luxury to millions who have endured pay cuts, been relegated to part-time status or lost their jobs.

Gold-Plated Benefits

Members of Congress are eligible for two types of retirement plans and a retirement healthcare plan that in nearly every way are more generous than benefits typically offered to private-sector workers. One research group estimates that fringe benefits alone are worth about $82,000 per year to a federal legislator.

Free Parking

In addition to generous pay and gilded benefits, members of Congress enjoy a long list of conveniences and other perks, including free parking at their workplace on Capitol Hill, and at priority lots at Washington, D.C.’s two airports. They’re special, you see.

Earmarks

Congress has temporarily banned these pet spending projects, which evade ordinary budgeting procedures and often amount to home-district favors for donors or supporters. But some lawmakers want them back. The test will come in 2013, when the next Congress will either extend the ban or revoke it and start delivering overdue favors.

Speeches to Nobody

Some of those Congressional speeches broadcast on cable are given before an empty chamber in the Capitol, simply because politicians know they might get on TV. Expanded TV coverage of Congress has been a welcome bit of sunshine, but it also encourages posturing and sensationalism.

A Lack of Competition

In the private sector, competition punishes the obsolete and rewards those who deliver. Congress, however, holds a monopoly on legislating, so it still operates by ancient procedures and dallies indefinitely on urgent matters. There’s no measure of effectiveness for the body as a whole, and some members insist that gridlock—a euphemism for accomplishing nothing—is in the nation’s interest.

No Penalty for Ignorance

Members of Congress sometimes reveal a dangerous degree of ignorance on vitally important issues they have considerable power to regulate. This year, for instance, the science journal Nature said a House committee had “entered the intellectual wilderness” on climate science, and The Economist called Republican debt-ceiling negotiators “economically illiterate.”

Lobbyists

For every member of Congress, there are about 22 registered lobbyists who donate money, throw fundraisers and manipulate legislation to the benefit of corporations and interest groups. Some of the most powerful lobbyists are former members of Congress, who form a “shadow Congress” more influential than pressure from voters.

The Media

Journalists, bloggers, and pundits jump on every argumentative word in Washington, while underreporting key issues likeunemployment and poverty that matter more to real people. This makes politicians even more narcissistic and combative, since they know they’ll generate coverage if they say something controversial.

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