564 Comments

Why not reduce their pay to a dollar a year?

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I’m game to the reduction of the Republican representatives salary to $1.00 per year. They don’t do anything to deserve that anyway.

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That would be over payment for their worth!

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I agree; in fact, I think those whackedadoodle Fweedumb Kawkuss GOPpers owe US money! My tax dollars are underwriting their stupidities, damn it.

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I have to agree T L. The true waste of tax dollars is the extreme R members of the House and spineless Keystone Kev. I would love to see them fined for every day that the government is shut down. In Oregon voters passed a measure that after ten unexcused absences, pols couldn't run again in the next cycle. Of course, Rs who walked out of the Senate are taking that to court, so we will see. On the lighter side, I did see a meme yesterday where men in church were fighting to sit next to Groper Gunslinger Barbie.

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Our Ballot Measure to prevent R's from running again after 10 unexcused absences passed by roughly 65% to 30%, which means about as many Republicans voted for it as Democrats and Nonaffiliated Voters. It speaks to the lunacy of our State and Local R leaders that they are choosing to defy the will of so many of their Constituents. Even in the State Supremes find fault with the kaw, it will be re-written and I predict will be passed by an even larger majority.

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It will be interesting to see how this plays out. It is clear to me what we voters intended which was to stop walking out to prevent legislative business from proceeding. But Rs don't seem to care what courts (unless the ruling is favorable to them) or voters say. They are so upset with people they call anarchists, but this is what they are really advocating. When that happens, they will be the strong men to straighten things out. This is why I haven't voted for any R for a long time and will never vote for one.

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Didn't the republicans pass some measure that there will be no proxy voting? Was this a Congressional thing or did it apply to the Senate? I personally think it is a good idea. I watched one vote on TV, I don't think a third of the people were there. One man would be representing about 4 or 5 people. You're in the hospital-too bad. death in the family (maybe not your immediate family) too bad, send flowers. Weather is too cold-too bad. You're stuck in the Bahamas-too bad.

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I think that what we have to accept at some point is that their agenda does not only not have the best interest of the citizens of the United States at heart, it also does not support the framework upon which the Constitution is built - one person, one vote, majority rule. They want a white Protestant supremacist autocracy. Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Muslims, females, immigrants, gays, atheists et al. will be deprived of equal rights. It's the American Taliban in action.

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Agreed.

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Oho...that made me laugh! Thank you!

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Looks like their prayers may have been answered.. Maybe she'll drop her Bible and they can rush to pick it up.

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who in tarnation is GGB?

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Our friend the Congress woman from Colorado of infamous Beetlejuice attendance fame. And she admitted to being eccentric which is now a synonym for vaping inside a theater, being outrageously rude, and indulging in some public sexual activity. Do you know who I am she wanted to know.

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I gotta remember this… “ whackedadoodle Fweedumb Kawkuss GOPpers”!

What a description, TL!

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You'd probably love TCinLA's substack, "That's Another Fine Mess." He comes up with a lot of this stuff, and he's quite a character.

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I do. Read it all the time. Fantastic stuff!

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I subscribe to TC's substack and I cribbed his "Fweedumb Kawkus" bit...the rest (which was supposed to be whackadoodle but I 'whacked' it) is my own.

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Great point Daniel. I’d like to ask the people who put them in place if they’re proud of their vote.

“Short on specifics” and “doesn’t get it” succinctly sums it up , huh!

Great writing Heather, thanks 🫶🫶

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They're traitors. They don't care how much damage they do to the country, if it will make Biden loose a few votes.

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Their only agenda right now is getting Frumpy the 🍓💩🤡 back in the White House so they will have a Dictatorship, and do away with the Constitution and Democracy. That’s their agenda. After that, no government agency in city, county, state, or federal will have any authority of any kind. Including Congress, and the Supreme Court! All will be under the authority of the Dictator, Donald J. Trump. All will answer to him, and him alone.

This bunch of Republicans that are “following” him like a herd of sheep 🐑 have no idea what he’s doing, what his plans are, or how he’s going to involve them afterward.

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I somewhat disagree. The major portion of traitorous republicans know exactly what they have and they are OK with it. As long as their fearless leader destroys those that they hate. They also seem to despise that pesky constitution we have had since 1887.

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That’s their goal, Jack. What Trump has laid out l, that he fully intends to ‘implement’ when he’s re-elected, is nothing short of a Dictatorship.

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Were they Russian imports?

Even "Americans" can be like this??....makes one loose faith in the human race....Waiting for the day we are an endangered species....after we have killed off nearly all the others....except cockroaches, who are here to stay.

I don't read science fiction; I think we are living it.

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Big purge of all WH staff and retribution against any one who has opposed him such as Millie. The Ukraine will fall, and Putin will happily pick up small countries to add to his collection. Then WWIII because NATO will be involved. This is what the trumpers and rep are not looking ahead to. It will be the Democrats' fault some how.

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I would estimate a dollar yearly to split amongst themselves would be an over-payment.

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D4N, great comment! Divide the dollar among all those dolts. Less than a penny for their thoughts.....

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Elisabeth,

too funny.

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I wish they had thoughts. All they are are a bunch of hissing reptilian primitive brains.

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Is that called recession?

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The ensuing infighting would be GREAT entertainment, though. And we could put it on pay-per-view to raise money to reduce the national debt.

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Lol... I like the way you think Lex; turnabout is 'fair play' as far as I'm concerned. Make a nickel or so for our cause for a change.

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Better yet - make them pay to show up!

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Their wealthy donors would be more than happy to make up the difference.

I really don’t understand the turmoil over congressional salaries. I made consistently more than that selling mass spectrometers, and their true income is hardly their congressional salary.

The threats to the military leaders income, however, is stupid and of course just grandstanding. What a pitiful bunch of losers these MAGgots are.

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One of the reasons MTG made that ridiculous comment is obvious, General Austin is Afro American.

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I think that those kind of $$ to sell spectrometers speaks to the failure of capitalism where the riskiest, and hardest physical labor is awarded the least worth then it does to the amount of pay to legislators

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I’d be ok with that too!

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Who votes for these people? Why does the media cover this as normal government and politics?

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Many districts are gerrymandered. We are experiencing government by the minority. (the ultra religious minority)

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Oh, yes, and which religion do the loud and dumb trio represent?

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MAGA GODS ( trump)

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It is part of the mystique of a dictator to be the infallible leader, all wise, all knowing and nobody can ever touch him.

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Religion? Well, we did have a golden statue of trump at a conference a while back.

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It's nice to think so, but apart from the Senate (where "cloture" rules give a minority the institutional ability to stop any legislation from coming up for passage by a majority), the fact is that it's not gerrymandering but voters who give the Rs a majority in the present incarnation of the House: in 2022, R House candidates collectively got 54.5 million votes, Ds only 51.5 million. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections As nauseating as it is to recognize, as of 11/22 the Rs WERE the majority among those who turned out to vote.

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The fault is not in the stars but in ourselves.

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Why, indeed? Ask the media that question. I haven’t had a letter in NYT in a while, but I think I’ll borrow your question for one.

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Because they are owned by the billionaires conglomerates/monopolies. WE have laws on the books "Anti-Trust" to regulate consolidation giving one group too much power but we don't use it.

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Lina Kahn is doing her damnedest. I have followed Matt Stoller, an anti-monopoly economist and excellent reporter since the mid oughts. From my hammered middle class seat, Kahn may have been the Biden Administration's best appointment.

Still, Kahn has a gargantuan job. While she's getting press for her Amazon suit, her work to rein in private equity is the big, complex story that most people will glaze over while listening to.

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/cha-ching-lina-khan-attacks-private?r=lvns&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

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Thank you for the link--I also admire Matt Stoller.

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I admire both of you.

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The basic reason is hate. Most of that is "trumped up" hate. All it has to be is a little different and they can hate and they vote their hate. I have been amazed at homopobic folks that come to know some gays or find they have gay family member and change their views.

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Sep 29, 2023
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I really agree, I am a member of an Episcopal Church in a very conservative area and this is where I have seen the direct impact of several gay couples on how some very conservative folks have changed their view. All of a sudden they realize that these are very real hard working and caring couples. Community matters.

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I have mixed feelings always about seeing Marjorie Taylor Greene's name in the news. The imprint of watching her clad in white fur heckle the President Biden's State of the Union speech won't go away, yet she carries the district in Georgia where I grew up, and a friend tells me she's still solidly popular. I cringed when McCarthy said, "I need this woman," but of course he does, and she needs Fox and all the rest of the right wing media. The mainstream media don't pay much attention to NW Georgia, so she puts them on the map. I noticed in a review about Cassidy Hutchinson's new book that the author speaks of being in Rome, GA, shortly before the 2020 election and thinking how misled people there were about Donald Trump. But I think it's more complex.

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MTG is infotainment. She sells, she's the bread and butter for outlets like Daily Kos, HuffPost. Every day there's a leading piece on her and her X posts, and if it isn't her, it's Lauren Boebert. Instead of writing about issues and legislation, it's groping in a playhouse, menorahs for Yom Kippur, and lifting weights in a gym.

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Unless, of course, one of them is your representative. I blame Democrats for letting MTG succeed. They seem to have no idea who might successfully oppose her; her new opponent, like the last one, is a Black retired military man. The district does not have a huge Black population, but it does have plenty of racial prejudice.

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...but I remember reading that MTG's challenger, Marcus Flowers, was not as enormously popular as we would have expected because he is married to a blonde white woman...

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Back then, as soon as I saw Flowers was the Democrats' candidate I said, "Mistake!" In THAT district to think that more moderate Republicans dissatisfied with Greene might join Democrats in defeating her was a stretch. A Black guy, always sporting a cowboy hat, and spouting very progressive ideas that screamed "Atlanta politics" had about as much chance succeeding there as a snowball's chance in hell. I lived in Rome for 4 years and saw what was around there. I think it will take a more centrist/moderate Democrat candidate that might appeal to both sides who would have the best chance to mount a serious campaign to unseat Greene. I also really hate to admit that it'd probably be best if that person were White. The northern third of Georgia, I'm sorry to say, still is home to a majority of conservative White voters who are going to most readily associate a person of color with extreme liberal politics of the Atlanta variety. It doesn't always go down well in those/these parts. Bitch about it and rail against it all you want, but it is still the reality. Change comes very slowly here, but progress can be made, albeit with baby steps. Do what it takes to unseat Greene first, then take it from there.

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That, too. MTG was going to run against Lucy McBath closer to Atlanta, but Republicans tipped her off that the other district was less diverse, so why can't Democrats see that?

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Maggot G T is not even toilet paper for toilets. What if the whole world suddenly got a grip and ignored idiocy?

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A good question. Meanwhile, we have News for Dummies. People go for the click bait and it gets fed to them by news outlets desperate to stay in business. They peddle gossip and other crap, and it's because many Americans never learned critical thinking skills. This means the stage is set for fascism. The people who do still read news are being told that it's "fake news" and that the "lamestream media" is lying to them. This is one trope the right, namely MAGA, depends on to spread its message - that Trump is the only one telling the truth, even if Trump is so delusional that he's literally babbling incoherently. The media, thinking they need to give equal credence to "both sides," lets Republican lies go unchallenged as those lies are launched against President Biden even though he's been a great president.

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It is a ratings race and truth in journalism , falls by the wayside. Trump was described by Ruth Ben Ghiat ( NYU professor and author) as the most brilliant propagandist in the 21st. Century. The basic rule is constant repetition of the disinformation until it becomes the truth.

And TFG can get his message out on a device that he can keep on a shelf near the toilet paper. Within seconds a million or more people can read his trash. Every media outlet offers him room on their platform or lose viewers or listeners. The Dems need an attack message and repeat it and keep on repeating it. This election will be a propaganda war, loaded with emotion. Forget the issues.

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Sep 29, 2023
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I understand she used to "weight lift" some of the trainers.

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I don't understand what you mean. I certainly hope you're not resorting to slut-shaming.

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Now that I read it, maybe. I was just referring to the fact that she had 2 affairs with personal trainers. Greene is just nuts.

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Michael Beschloss is right. TFG used social media, irresponsible cable outlets and radio to advance his messages loaded with propaganda. We never had mass communication available via a device that can fit in your pocket. They were brainwashed, just as you said.

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Jack, depressingly he had lots of help from Putin, and fascists provocateurs in our own country. With the new AI and China jumping on board with Putin tactics it sure feels like a mountain to big to scale. ☹️ plus people don’t seem to want to talk about it. So grateful to Beschloss and thank you for reading and commenting 🙏

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/coming-age-ai-powered-propaganda?check_logged_in=1

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Fight fire with fire

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The media covers "this" as normal government and politics because our normal government and politics is mostly about money and doing anything to hold onto power. [Those Founding Fathers were concerned with ideas and principles...and so was Lincoln and then Grant. And FDR. And, even Eisenhower. And, of course, more recent Democrats. How far we've fallen! but we are way down in a hole of our own making.]

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advertising dollars

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It is not illegal for them to act on insider information, so many of them already make more than their Congressional salaries trading in ways the rest of us can't. Plus there seem to be a lot of billionaires willing to buy their votes with lavish gifts and trips. Just donate to their PACs and no one can follow the money.

How is it possible for so many of them to become millionaires when their annual salary is under $200K?

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It's illegal when they get caught. Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation banning Congress members from stock trading, which went over like a lead balloon, naturally.

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It’s so frustrating for the rest of us when we know that many financial institutions and media companies in the industry prohibit their employees from trading in any equities except for mutual funds that they do not have any form of ownership or control. Yet elected officials that have insider information and make legislation are free to fleece.

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Congressman Stephen Buyer and Congressman Chris Collins were both prosecuted for insider trading. But if nobody knows about it, nobody gets prosecuted. I suspect that Warren's bill wouldn't really change anything.

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I think you meant Stephen Beyer. Beware autocorrect.

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True but I got the sense that they were exceedingly sloppy. Insider to me is when they have a third party doing the trading. It’s very difficult to nail these unethical people who are shooting fish in a barrel. This is from the September 13, 2022 NYT:

At least 97 current members of Congress bought or sold stock, bonds or other financial assets that intersected with their congressional work or reported similar transactions by their spouse or a dependent child, an analysis by The New York Times has found.

U.S. lawmakers are not banned from investing in any company, including those that could be affected by their decisions. But the trading patterns uncovered by the Times analysis underscore longstanding concerns about the potential for conflicts of interest or use of inside information by members of Congress, government ethics experts say.

Times reporters analyzed transactions between 2019 and 2021 using a database of members’ financial filings called Capitol Trades created by 2iQ Research. They matched the trades against relevant committee assignments and the dates of hearings and congressional investigations.

When contacted, many of the lawmakers said the trades they reported had been carried out independently by a spouse or a broker with no input from them. Some have since sold all their stocks or moved them into blind trusts. Two said the trades were accidental.

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Insider trading is defined as buying or selling stock based on information not made public, which gives the stock trader an unfair and illegal advantage. Smh

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I have to say, Gary, that "under $200K" is one hell of a lot more than most every-day, ordinary people make. Having been a single mother who never made more than $35K in all the years I was employed - and I had a good job working in an office, own my own home, raised 2 kids to adulthood who are decent, empathic & good human beings.

The idea that these yahoos are being paid well over $150K & griping because someone who has had the misfortune to possibly lose their job or become overwhelmed with medical bills, etc. and is on disability or "welfare" - has to prove to these entitled yahoos who are getting paid (BY US, I might add) for running off at the mouth in front of any camera or microphone that turns up, that they deserve enough to survive on!

Sorry for the rant but honestly enough is enough. This is why I dont watch the "news"!

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I understand. My daughter works as a pharmacy tech and a couple of times a year she has unexpected expenses that makes her stress out. Maybe we're bad parents but we end up helping her out a couple of times a year. One time was after she was still a shift lead and was assaulted at Walgreen's. It took her a couple of months to recover and return to work.

Walgreen's made her use up her PTO before they would start her disability. She didn't receive any money from Walgreen's for six weeks. And it took 18 months before the Walgreen's worker's comp paid her medical bills.

The Republicans in the House remind me of Walgreen's management. They could care less if Federal employees go without a paycheck for weeks on end. They are all heartless jerks.

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I get it - I've helped both my kids out when they needed it - in my mind, theres nothing wrong with doing what we can for our children. That had to be so scary when your daughter was hurt - you do what you can - it doesnt matter how old they are - still your kids.

Its about time these corporations got some oversight in how their employees are treated.

Yet another ongoing issue!!

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It is, in fact, illegal for anyone, including politicians, to act on insider information.

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Sadly I believe their salaries are guaranteed by the constitution. I wonder though if all their aides will continue to collect?

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Yes, this is true. The shutdown does not impact them, so they don't care

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Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution

The Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any law that increases or decreases the salary of members of Congress from taking effect until after the next election of the House of Representatives has occurred. It is the most recently adopted amendment but was one of the first proposed. The 1st Congress submitted the amendment to the states for ratification on September 25, 1789, along with 11 other proposed amendments. Wikipedia

However, the USSC found that Congress could be awarded an annual COLA to their salaries.

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Sep 28, 2023
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With .1 percenters for BFFs I doubt the public's paycheck is their top concern.

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Better yet, if they shut down the government, effectively they are out of a job - right?

Send them packing without a paycheck - anyone who wants to keep the job can fill in on a volunteer basis until they can come up with a working budget (doing the job they were elected to do.)

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They don’t care about their salary. It doesn’t do a damn thing to threaten it.

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Yes Jen, I see from HulitC that their salaries are guaranteed by the Constitution ... what a rigged game this is!

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And tax it at 90%!

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Excellent question, Evelyn! These extremists are wasting the taxpayers time and money. They don't care about governing; they just want to stay in power and get attention. Well, there is only one solution to deal with them, and that is to deny them power. I hope the activists who live in their districts are busy recruiting great candidates to oppose them, and doing everything they can to register voters and get people to the polls to vote the extremists out of office. Yes, gerrymandering is a problem, but eventually even the extremists' supporters may get tired of their ignoring real problems while they posture. Right now, get on the phones and let these people know their unwillingness to do their jobs is going to cost them in 2024.

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"Ignoring real problems while they posture." Indeed!

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Great idea Evelyn Spiess!

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My Congressman Dr. Ami Bera introduced and helped pass the 'No Budget, No pay' legislation, it is still in effect if they shur the government down they will get 0 pay during each day of the shut down. Unfortunately this applies to the party forcing the shutdown and the party trying to prevent the shutdown. McCarthy is the one who refuses to bring the Senate compromise to the floor for fear of losing his job, boo hoo!

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They’ll still be over paid.

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Let's make it a federal ballot measure! I wish that could be done lol.

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