Tag Archives: Congress
How corporations bribe congressional staffers even before they become congressional staffers
HERE‘s a clever scheme perpetrated by Corporate America:
Recent disclosures and employment agreements reviewed by The Nation show that current leadership staff to both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have received six-figure bonuses and other incentive pay from corporate firms shortly before taking jobs in Congress. In many cases, these staffers are well positioned to influence multibillion-dollar legislation on issues ranging from tax policy to defense, and which impact their previous employers. If government officials turned lobbyists reflect a well-known “revolving door,” paying corporate employees big bucks to leave lucrative posts to take jobs in government reflect a “reverse revolving …
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Tagged Congress, Corporate America
Under John Boehner, the House of Representatives is a bunch of shiftless slackers
The majority party in the House of Representatives gets to decide when that body is formally in session, which means that Speaker John Boehner and the other Republicans on his leadership team are to blame for the lazy pace of the past few months — and years.
If these people received only the currently disgracefully low minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, they’d be overpaid.
Dana Milbank EXPLAINS:
A meat cleaver hangs over the federal government, but the unflappable men and women of the House majority remain cool and poised.
With just four days left to stop automatic spending …
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Tagged Congress, Republicans
Blame Congress for end to Saturday mail delivery
The announcement that the U.S. Postal Service will discontinue Saturday mail delivery beginning in August is not the fault of the Internet. Rather, the blame goes to those fine public servants we’ve elected to represent us in the federal legislature.
HERE‘s the deal:
Under the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, Congress has for years forced the USPS to pre-fund 75 years’ worth of pensions for its employees, a requirement not made of any other public or private institution. That means that the Postal Service is footing the bill for employees it hasn’t even hired yet.
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Tagged Congress, U.S. Postal Service
GOP’s no-budget-no-pay edict is unconstitutional
There haven’t been any public-opinion polls on the matter yet, but I’m guessing that most Americans are delighted with the proposal by House Republicans to withhold paychecks from members of Congress if a formal budget plan is not passed within the next three months.
But there are two things wrong this no-budget-no-pay edict: First of all, formal budget plans are not really the big deal some people make them out to be. And second of all, paychecks for members of Congress cannot rightly be withheld.
Jonathan Chait EXPLAINS:
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Congress, Republicans, U.S. Constitution
Oops! GOP panel admits that the party’s majority in the U.S. House results from gerrymandering
Before we get into this matter, you’re going to need to know the definition and genesis of the term “gerrymandering.”
The G-word refers to the drawing of boundaries in a legislative district to favor one party or group over others. For example, the boundaries of a congressional district can be drawn in some cases to ensure that there are more Republicans than Democrats (or vice versa) living there.
The practice is known as gerrymandering because Massachusetts Gov. Elbridge Gerry signed a bill in 1812 that included a remapped district that looked like a salamander (as in the cartoon above).
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Tagged Congress, gerrymandering, Republicans
