Last updated on 2013.10.06
Speaking of paychecks, our South Dakota delegation to Washington appears to be doing the right thing and declining to take their paychecks while their fecklessness leaves 800,000 other federal workers scrambling to cover their bills without their usual pay.
The Washington Post doesn't include them on their list of lawmakers foregoing their undeserved paychecks, but KELO finds that Senator Tim Johnson, Senator John Thune, and Representative Kristi Noem are all setting their paychecks aside during the shutdown:
...Senator Johnson is forgoing pay during the shutdown and putting his check in an escrow account.
...Thune says he will not take a paycheck if unpaid furloughed workers aren't reimbursed after the shutdown is over.
...Noem will not accept her paycheck if furloughed government workers fail to receive back pay after the shutdown is over [Ben Dunsmoor, "Is SD Delegation Getting Paid During Shutdown?" KELOLand.com, 2013.10.03].
Now notice that none of our delegation is actually rejecting the paycheck. Thune's and Noem's turndowns are conditional on back pay for furloughed workers, which will likely sail through Congress to a supportive President Obama this weekend. Johnson is simply setting the money aside. Up in North Dakota, Senators John Hoeven and Heidi Heitkamp are kissing their paychecks goodbye and sending them to local charities. So are Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken in Minnesota. Tim, John, Kristi, care for suggestions?
Maybe it's time to pay all members of Congress partly on commission. We can't pay them by the vote or by the bill, because holy smokes, you'd see gridlock disappear under a flood of legislation then! But there are certain things Congress has to do, like pass a budget. Perhaps we should say to members of Congress that they get half of their pay, $87,000, just for showing up, but they don't get the other half until we have a budget. And I don't mean anarcho-Scrooge Paul Ryan fantasy budgets that the House GOP passes for show, knowing the Senate will never vote for them. I mean a real budget, passed by both chambers and enacted into law.
No budget by the beginning of the fiscal year, October 1? Members of Congress forfeit 10% of their remaining pay, $8,700.
No budget by November 1? They lose another 20%, $17,400.
No budget by December 1? They lose another 30%, $26,100.
No budget by January 1? They lose the last 40%, $34,800.
Members of Congress don't seem to listen to anything but money. To get them to do their jobs, we may have set some benchmarks. Anyone else have some new pay rules to suggest that might keep our Congresspeople focused on their jobs?
Actually, federal elected officials cannot be refused their paychecks, nor can they refuse to accept their paychecks. Therefore, both Thune and Noem are not truthful with their constituents. Make no mistake: they continue to receive their paychecks throughout the shutdown despite their misleading vocal objections. Johnson is the honest person, of the three, because he truly is living without his paycheck by putting it all into an escrow account.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/326773-house-approves-back-pay-for-workers-hit-by-the-shutdown
I've heard that when Bill Janklow was governor he would sometimes put his paychecks in a desk drawer and just leave them there uncashed. Maybe that's what Thune & Noem are doing. But since we know they have received their pay we need to press them about what they are actually doing with the money they claim they will not take. Most likely they simply have it electronically transferred into their accounts. So is the money sitting there mingled with their spouse's money and getting spent?
Somebody, anybody, try to get a straight answer out of Thune & Noem. Where exactly is that money going?
So are the poor going to get to live on their meager allowances. Or are we just talking about federal workers getting their big checks a little later. Either way they are trying to sabotage federal law in the process. If they are trying to sabotage the democratic process that makes laws, is there any honor in all this. Whether or not they get their pay.
I assume all these folks are posturing.
I have questions which I don't expect anyone to answer.
I assume that paychecks for federal employees are direct deposit, handled mostly automatically. If you are a salaried employee, your deposit shows up in your account with no action required on your part. (Bet it was that way in the Spearfish School District) So, who do you have to call to request that your check be held? Is there really a process, or is this ALL just B.S. since it isn't possible to make it happen?
I'll bet it's all so much BS since the people who would be making any payroll changes are no doubt furloughed. There is no "holding" of checks, a member would have to write a check to make a donation to a charity or put the funds in a different account.
South Dakota: Land of Infinite Entitlement.
That didn't take the House very long, did it, Vinny? Imagine what they could achieve if they stopped playing games and wrote a real budget.
Indeed, my Spearfish checks were all direct deposit. I can't imagine the Speaker or some functionary actually writes out paper checks.
There salaries are chump change to them anyway. The real money for them comes from getting elected again and again. When that happens, they get that money as an annuity for as long as they live. The trick is fooling the rubes long enough to get that sweet spot. The real money comes from their handlers and what they give themselves or their families as bonus bucks. You know, entitlements. There is are some exceptions to what I have just said, Tim Johnson and Herseth-Sandlin come to mind. In the last 25 years of South Dakota politics, that is not a very good track record.
They should become involved with politics for the love of country. Serving America should be an honor. Instead, it has become corrupted to the point that now, it is so rotten, it has shut down. They only work a couple of weeks a year for the business of the people, the rest of the time, they are out taking moolah on the side. Tony Soprano was just a minor figure compared to this graft and the manipulation of our entire democracy. As the Seattle Times just editorialized, vote every republican from office that is involved with this new scheme, they no longer deserve to be bribed.
The Republicans start with a problem of 800,000 people not working and then make it worse by paying them to do nothing. This is all posturing and BS.
Bonehead Boehner was on Sabbath gasbag circuit this morning saying again and agains that all the retrograde obstructionists really want is a conversation.
Despite his bravado, he is practically down on his knees begging Obama please...rescue me from my own incompetent stupidity.
Bill Moyers last night gave three examples of outright lies from Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, and moron Steve King of Iowa regarding "Obamacare". A steady stream of this kind of crap has warped US perspective. Obama can be blamed for not counter-acting this BS, but perhaps he had an unfortunately optimistic view of the intelligence of US voters and non-voters. The tendency of talking heads to "balance" the unbalance-able is also a factor. The present hard facts for Obamacare and then dredge up some scumbag who presents mythology as if it is hard and fast data.