What Representation are We Getting? Not Our Monies Worth!
They should be ASHAMED, while many Americans seek a job, these folks harldy show up for theirs!
ANDERSON COOPER, HOST: Good evening, everyone. Thanks for joining us. It is 8:00 p.m. on the east coast. We begin tonight keeping them honest. And I don't know what else to say, but here we go again.
We are on the brink of a partial government shutdown. And house members are on vacation next week. That's right, a vacation. They're leaving Washington. It's recess. The do-nothing Congress is living up to its name.
Early this morning the Republican-controlled house did approve a bill that would keep the government running past September 30th through mid November. But it's laden with spending cuts opposed by the leadership of the democratic, the democratic leadership in the Senate, which meant it was dead on arrival in the Senate. They killed the bill hours later. The Senate will vote on another version of the bill on Monday. And where will the house members be? On vacation. They sure do like to skip town.
Since January the house has been in session just 125 days. In nine months they spent only 125 days in session.
There's a whole lot of time away from Washington, and we realize they take some of that time to meet with constituents back in their home districts and do other official business. But keeping them honest, when the government could be on the brink of shutting down, this is no time for a recess. After all, most American workers would never be able to take time off what I big project has to get done on deadline. Funding the government, that's a big project with a very important deadline.
And consider this. According to expedia.com, the average American worker gets 18 vacation days a year, 18, and they only use 14 of them.
Did I mention that since January Congress has only been in session for 125 days? Plus the divided 112th Congress is on pace to be the least productive in recent memory.
Since January only 14 house measures have been signed into law by President Obama. And look at this when Democrats controlled the house last year from January to June, 466 bills and resolutions were passed.
By comparison over the same time frame this year only 207 bills or resolutions got approval. They spent more time bickering than getting anything actually done. Yet house lawmakers sure do get paid a lot. Rank and file representatives earn $174,000 a year. The speaker of the house takes home $223,500. Now, compare that to the average American salary of around $43,000, according to the bureau of labor statistics. Meanwhile, the more than one point or the more than 14 million unemployed Americans, 14 million unemployed right now, would love to have a paycheck, any paycheck.
Job fairs all across America, we met Americans seeking work. People like Anna Lowrie (ph) of Atlanta who in August was homeless for four months. She said she was going back and forth, living with her sister or friends. And here's Matt Blodgett (ph). When we met him in Atlanta last month, he said he'd been looking for work since December. He said he'd sit at the computer and apply and apply and you don't get a lot of responses. Americans frustrated, looking for work.
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1109/23/acd.01.html
DO SOMETHING!
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