Federal Politicians are Out of Touch with THE PEOPLE OF THE U.S.

• Billions of dollars are spent wastefully

• Corruption is rampant but not recognized as corruption

• Immigration laws are ignored when this could mean more votes in an election

• Benefits have increased for public workers over the years but decreased for most Americans who are the ones who pay for the public workers

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DISCUSSION

WASTEFUL SPENDING

1) Congressional Earmarks

~$16 Billion were spent on earmarks in fiscal 2010; this should have been zero given the $13 Trillion national debt

2) Stimulus Funds Used on items that will not provide real growth to the economy

See the Coburn-McCain report that found 300 “questionable projects” costing taxpayers over $15 Billion including $62 Million for a tunnel to nowhere in Pittsburgh, PA that even the PA Governor called “a tragic mistake”; some would say that $15B out of an $862 Billion stimulus is not bad, however, it is horrific because we had to borrow that money, so the price is really $15 Billion PLUS the interest payments on that debt that will have to be made for years to come

3) Other funds spent wastefully

Example: Congress contributed $5 Billion last year from the general treasury to the Highway Fund because some of the gas tax money, which was supposed to be spent on our dangerously decaying bridges and roads, was spent instead on museums, scenic designing and bike and pedestrian paths; according to a GAO report, during the years 2005 through 2009, Congress misspent $78 Billion of gas tax money on other than highways, roads and bridges causing Congress to have to “bail out” the Highway Fund a number of times; (also see last week’s Blog on wasteful spending found by the Heritage Foundation)

4) Trips for big groups of people including friends and relatives paid for in whole or part by public funds

Example: the 200 people from the State Department that recently went to China, and a large group (including spouses and other family members) led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi who went to the Copenhagen Climate Conference (see our Blog dated July 7, 2010); also Michelle Obama’s recent trip to Spain which was only partially paid by public funds ($146K according to the media for Air Force Two, plus expenses for government people who accompanied her); We point to the First Lady’s trip because we can only imagine what a great boost it would have been for the economy of the Gulf Coast if she had taken her vacation there, or even some place else in the US, with her friends. We understand that her friend asked her to go to Spain with her, but Mrs. Obama should have declined or convinced her friend to go somewhere in the US instead. A PR person in Spain figures that Granada, a town in Spain they visited, got at least $1B worth of free publicity from the trip and that the result will be a significant number of tourists coming to Granada. Given the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression and the fact that we still have double digit unemployment, providing a boost to the economy of Granada, Spain rather than towns in the U.S., especially when taxpayer dollars were used for part of the trip, is unfortunate. If that isn’t being out of touch, we don’t know what is!

5) Bailing out Banks and other companies with little or no adverse consequences to its investors and employees

It was bad enough having to bail out the banks that partially caused the Great Recession, but it made people angry when there was no quid pro quo demanded by the government other than interest on the amount of the government money provided (in other words, people who were running the companies should have stepped down and they personally should have lost money for their irresponsible actions)

CORRUPTION

1) Fund raisers for Members of Congress by companies that could be affected by pending legislation

See the NY Times article dated July 14, 2010 entitled Fund-Raising Before House Vote Draws Scrutiny, about a series of fund-raisers last December that took place right before (indeed, some on the same day) as a vote on the financial reform bill; an example they cite is Representative Crowley from New York who is on the House Ways and Means Committee; According to this article, he attended a fund-raising event where he collected thousands of dollars and then returned to the floor of the House in time to vote against some amendments that would have imposed stiff restrictions against the very financial institutions that had just contributed to his campaign fund

2) Accepting contributions from those who are under the “jurisdiction” of a committee that the Politician sits on

How many times did we hear Senator Dodd say that the banks giving him campaign money had nothing to do with the decisions he made as Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee (if you believe that we have a bridge to sell you!)

3) Allowing “endowments” at universities in the name of a Member of Congress which are funded by those who have some connection to the politician either by receiving earmarks or other “favors”

See the August 5, 2010 New York Times article by Eric Lipton which describes some of these endowments: one example is an endowment set up in the name off Mitch McConnell at the University of Louisville; this University received “hundreds of thousands of dollars from a military contractor to fund this endowment and this contractor later got a $12 million earmark that was sponsored by Senator McConnell”; another example is an endowment in the name of Senator Daniel Inouye at the University of Hawaii; according to the article, as funding for Senator Inouye’s endowment, the University of Hawaii “received $100,000 from a cruise ship line that Senator Inouye later helped with legislation allowing it to expand its American ports of call”

4) Making a rule and then allowing the rule to be broken

Example: this year the House ruled not to give earmarks to for-profit companies --- but then Members began giving earmarks to non-profit subsidiaries of for-profit companies that were set up in order to get earmarks in contravention of the House rule. Representatives acknowledge that this is happening but say that this is just fine!

5) Paying bribes in exchange for votes

When this was done to get votes for the new Health Care bill from “hold-out” senators, Senator Reid said that this was normal practice for how Congress gets laws passed (we heard him say this on TV)

FAILURE TO ENFORCE U.S. LAWS

1) Failing to secure our borders

2) Failing to require people to speak/write English before becoming citizens so that they can vote in English in the voting booth

We believe it is harmful for people to vote when their only source of information on candidates and issues may be misleading translations

3) Failing to arrest students who came to the Capitol and announced that they entered this country illegally

See the Wall Street Journal Article dated July 31, 2010 entitled Young Illegals Out Themselves, Daring to be Deported)

4) Failing to uphold laws that forbid the hiring of workers who are not in the country legally

The new policy of the Administration apparently is to go after and deport only those illegals who are “criminals” (see Wall Street Journal Article dated August 3, 2010 entitled Deportation Data Reflect Shift)

WE ARE IN FAVOR OF LEGAL IMMIGRATION........however, illegal immigration is hurting this country; unfortunately, politicians think only about getting more votes rather than what is good for the United States

PUBLIC vs. TAXPAYER BENEFITS

1) Most US workers in the private sector no longer participate in pension plans; some have 401(k) plans at work which do not have defined benefits, but whose value fluctuates with the markets. (Also, many employers stopped giving matching funds during the Great Recession)

2) For those lucky enough to have a private sector pension plan, it is supposed to be guaranteed by a Federal corporation called the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) from funds received as insurance premiums from the companies providing the pension plans; however, the PBGC has assumed responsibility for a number of severely underfunded plans and what once were surpluses on its balance sheet have become deficits (according to CBS news on May 3, 2010, the PBGC has a deficit of $129 Billion). Apparently because many underfunded plans have union participation, bills have been introduced in the House and Senate (Senator Casey, Democrat from PA in the Senate and Representative Pomeroy, Democrat from ND in the House) to have the taxpayers bail out union underfunded plans which Moody’s estimates are underfunded by $165 Billion

3) The really lucky workers are in the Federal public sector; Their pension payments come from the general treasury and are therefore guaranteed by American taxpayers; their payout is based on the number of years of service and the average amount of salary of their three highest paying salary years. They can receive as much as 80% of their salary. Recently, Congress gave Federal workers the right to add their accumulated sick leave to their retirement (most businesses don’t even let employees accumulate sick or vacation leave from one year to the next let alone add it to their retirement benefits)

4) Federal workers also get two other retirement benefits: a Federal Thrift Savings Plan and participation in Social Security; The Federal Thrift Savings Plan is similar to a 401(k). Whether or not a Federal worker contributes any money to the plan, Uncle Sam contributes 1% of the worker’s salary every year into the Thrift Savings Plan, and matches what the worker contributes to the plan up to 5% of that worker’s salary. Social Security benefits essentially work the same as it does for the private sector: they pay FICA (payroll) tax of 6.2% up to the “cap” which this year is $106,800 (see our Blog regarding Social Security dated July 28, 2010).

5) Of course, all of these wonderful benefits Congress gave to other Federal workers they also gave to themselves. They get their full pensions at age 50 if they have worked 20 years in Congress, or are eligible at any age after 25 years of service or age 62 without regard to the number of years in Congress except that in order to get a pension they have to have worked at least 5 years for the Federal Government

6) We decided to include a paragraph on the salaries of Federal workers after reading an Article in USA Today entitled Federal workers Earning Double their Private Counterparts (dated August 10, 2010). For the last nine years, while private wages and benefits have been decreasing, those of the public workers have been increasing, so much so that public workers now earn, on average, twice as much as private workers ($123,049 versus $61,051). For 2011, President Obama asked for a 1.4% across-the-board pay hike in 2011 for Federal workers. Although this is the lowest raise requested in a decade (last year’s raise was 2%) it is still a salary increase while the private sector is still suffering through wage decreases. According to the USA today article, this 1.4% adds up to $2.2 Billion; however, this figure does not take into consideration the increased amounts these workers will get in their Savings Thrift Accounts discussed above nor the increases they will get in their pensions from these annual raises. We have to say it again, this Administration and Congress are OUT OF TOUCH with the temper of the times

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• Our politicians say that Social Security costs too much money (although Social Security payments for the most part do not come from the general treasury as do Federal pensions and funds for thrift savings accounts) and they want to take further cuts from Social Security by, among other things, pushing back the retirement age to 70 when members of Congress can retire at age 50 --- shouldn’t their retirement age be pushed back too? [Please comment below]

• We need to insist that Federal workers get what most people get in the private sector....401(k) plans with little or no matching funds; if they had what most Americans have, they would feel differently about Social Security benefits; without reducing their benefits, Members of Congress will remain out of touch