As this cluster lurches into the summer, Real Americans are getting fed up with the total and utter lack of action from anyone in DC on anything. Other than John Wall and Bryce Harper, aint' na'er person in the District doing anything productive. Adding to the bad press for Obama is a recent string of trivial "controversies" drummed up by Conservative media that make it seem as it he's "living large on the taxpayer's dime" in these times of financial turmoil. They've ragged on him for playing golf with Tiger Woods, which is sorta triflin' if you think about it. But they undermine their (only vaguely valid) point by also slamming Obama for doing basic sh*t like filling out Final Four brackets, going to a basketball game a few blocks from his house, and playing golf at an Air Force base that's actually inside the Beltway.
And, oh yeah, they were talkin' sh*t about the Obama Girls. No bueno, guys. Cut that sh*t out.
It's odd to me that the GOP doesn't understand how crying wolf over every damn thing (and I do mean everything) the President does, they undermine any actual points they might have, and also ruin their limited credibility. I'm concerned about the possible rising cost of The Affordable Care Act myself, but when people are complaining about sh*t like this with the same level of fervor, forgive me if I'm not a little skeptical about whatever "facts" you might present.
Anyways, in an attempt to get the press off his back, the President did something completely contrived and totally political, but still ballsy, to call Congress' bluff.
President Obama’s decision to return 5 percent of his salary to the U.S. Treasury in show of solidarity with federal workers might make folks wonder whether Congress will do the same.
Members of the House and Senate earn $174,000 annually and haven’t voted to raise their salaries since 2009, knowing that increasing their paychecks would only make them more unpopular with the general public. Several lawmakers, many of them independently wealthy, donate considerable portions of their congressional pay to charity or back to the U.S. Treasury.
Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), a double amputee and Iraq war veteran, was first to announce in late February that she planned to donate part of her earnings in protest of $85 billion in automatic spending cuts known as the sequester. Duckworth plans to return to the U.S. Treasury 8.4 percent of her monthly salary for each month that Congress fails to avert the cuts.
Duckworth’s 8.4 percent figure comes from the amount of money being slashed from discretionary federal spending accounts, which fund several primary education programs facing cuts in Duckworth’s district in the Chicago suburbs.
In the District, Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) also plans to cut her pay. For each day that federal workers are furloughed, Norton plans to donate half of her pay to the Federal Employee Education & Assistance Fund, which provides emergency loans as well as child-care subsidies and other financial help for federal workers. The other half will go to her congressional office budget to compensate furloughed staffers.
The offices of House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio), who earns $223,500 annually, and Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.),who makes $193,400 per year, wouldn’t say Wednesday whether they plan to take pay cuts.
I wasn't a math major, but the above sentence says Harry Reid, who has been in the Senate since The Civil War actually makes less than John Boehner, who is a part-time drunkard and a sometimes US Congressman. Can someone explain how this works? I assumed the Senate, by virtue of being a much harder to attain gig, would pay a lot more. Silly me.
Anyways, it'll be interesting to see how Conservatives frame this one. Fox News is already on the job, I'm sure.
Question: Was this a good idea by #TeamObama, or is a 5% pay cut so insignificant that it makes no sense at all?!?
