Congressman who voted to cut food stamps whining about six-figure salary

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/report-phil-gingrey-gripes-172k-salary-97062.html

Now granted his point about lobbyists is kind of valid, but for all the GOP and his record on the poor and working class is it's proof of being more out of touch. It's kind of like how a lot of Mitt Romney's comments gave the impression he didn't even realize why anyone besides the 1% would find them elitist and out of touch.

[TNF]

What a scumbag.

[Maxwell]

Phil Gingrey is a Todd Akin-defending jackass. Hope he gets crushed in the Pub primary.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Gingrey is a "maker," you see, and deserves that kind of money.

[bgwah]

I see the same problem but come to a much different conclusion - we need to crack down on lobbyists.

[Indy Texas]

It's sort of fitting that in our brave new highly stratified world, most of our elected officials view a level of income that most Americans will never attain in their lifetimes as a pittance.

There are two ways to be made about this. There's the conservative way of griping about overpaid government employees and political insiders. There's the liberal way of griping about rich people complaining about being insufficiently rich while making life harder for the poor.

But if we strip all the varnish away and think of being a member of Congress as being like any other job (which is the approach I'm inclined to take), it's important to remember that the level of compensation and benefits you offer is going to impact the kind of people who apply for the job.

There are a lot of intelligent, successful people in America who will not run for Congress precisely because it would wreak financial havoc on their lives. They would in most cases be taking a pay cut. And then they would have to start maintaining two residences rather than one. They would have to sever many long-term business ties such as board directorships and probably miss out on a lot of lucrative investment opportunities to avoid conflicts of interest. They would be expected to spend some of their own money on getting reelected every two years. And if they were defeated for reelection, they would likely find returning to their prior profession difficult due to all of the political baggage they'd be bringing back with them.

Once in college I attended a presentation given by a businessman who had held some ambassadorship in the Bush Sr. administration and had been approached several times in the '90s to run for Congress as a Republican. He said he always declined because he "couldn't afford it."

[TDAS04]

What a scumbag.

[Smash255]

Phil Gingrey is a Todd Akin-defending jackass. Hope he gets crushed in the Pub primary.

He could lose the Primary

To this guy.......
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBy3MbP4WDo

[Link]

They would have to sever many long-term business ties such as board directorships and probably miss out on a lot of lucrative investment opportunities to avoid conflicts of interest.

You don't honestly believe this?

There are a lot of intelligent, successful people in America who will not run for Congress precisely because it would wreak financial havoc on their lives.

You really don't believe this.  Bill Gates is highly intelligent and it wouldn't cost him a penny to become a Congressman and he doesn't seem to want the job.  There are people who aren't even paying their child support that are Congressmen and there are fabulously wealthy people who don't need to work at all to support themselves who refuse to be Congressmen.  Either you are a political animal or you're not.  We only need a few hundred Congressman and 100 senators.  In a country of 330 million I'm sure there are some pretty good hearted smart people that can do the job for more money than 94% of the country makes.

[The Free North]

If we really want to consider politicians 'PUBLIC SERVANTS'......they should get paid minimum wage.


And thats only because you cant pay them nothing

[memphis]

I will never forget him going on the Colbert Report and repeatedly answering in the affirmative when asked if he was a Georgia Peach.

[Indy Texas]

If we really want to consider politicians 'PUBLIC SERVANTS'......they should get paid minimum wage.


And thats only because you cant pay them nothing

So you're in favor of more or less prohibiting anyone who isn't independently wealthy (enough so to cover at least 2 years worth of living expenses) from serving in Congress? Or worse, making them dependent on outside benefactors for their sustenance and thus allowing those benefactors to have even greater leverage over them?

[Maxwell]

If we really want to consider politicians 'PUBLIC SERVANTS'......they should get paid minimum wage.


And thats only because you cant pay them nothing

So you're in favor of more or less prohibiting anyone who isn't independently wealthy (enough so to cover at least 2 years worth of living expenses) from serving in Congress? Or worse, making them dependent on outside benefactors for their sustenance and thus allowing those benefactors to have even greater leverage over them?

He's probably in the same group that thinks "No Budget No Pay" would be effective.