The Houston Chronicle reports that when 59-year-old Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, leaves his job, he will immediately become eligible for a congressional pension of nearly $67,000 a year. Over the next 20 years, DeLay could collect a cool $1.3 million, plus health benefits. And his pension is conviction-proof, should he not escape a guilty verdict in the Texas campaign-finance case or otherwise. Such retirement income isn’t as nice as DeLay’s $180,100 majority leader salary was, but it would be the envy of many of the 4 in 10 U.S. workers 55 and older who, according to a new study, have retirement savings of less than $25,000.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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14 Comments
Congress pads it’s own nest egg very nicely! It should be like the military, where when you’ve disgraced your office, your benefits are forfeited.
Agreed, Steve. Congress has voted itself perks/pay/benefits with no consideration for the electorate–and they have been doing this for years, regardless of the party in power.
Remember some years ago they sneaked thru a law that eliminated their need to vote for pay raises–they made it so if they don’t vote AGAINST a pay raise, they automatically get one every year.
Plus, Congress has exempted itself from the labor laws it forces on the rest of the country.
No party has a lock on those abuses, it is appalling and disgusting.
Raptor I agree with you about perks and benefits. Isnt congress exempt from social security too?
“No party has a lock on those abuses, it is appalling and disgusting.”
I generally agree with that, but I am gonna pounce early here on something. Dont even TRY to paint this as a bipartisan scandal. Delay and abramhoff and ralph reed and tony rudy, etc. are ALL yours.
I am not blindly defending dems here. I hope I have proven I have no love for them if they are dirty. But the lack-of-integrity scales are not balanced between the parties right now. Let’s have a current sense of proportion.
The r’s are weighing really heavy right now. Heavy on the entire nation.
I have never been a fan of term limits, but I am getting there now. What little talent would be lost is FAR outweighed by the corruption headed off.
No tears for Tom DeLay, but I do shed them for the slaughtered animal that poses as his hair.
DeLay should be given the exact amout of consideration that he gave Clinton when he was pushing impeachment.
DeLay will make a killing on the Christian/Evangelical speaker curcuit also.
I am sure that DeLay was well compensated for his treason by the zionists and the corporatists!
Viva la Raza Blanco!!
kfg,I don’t believe raptor was trying to paint this as a bipartisan scandel. This blog is about the perks congress has voted itself, and THAT is bipartisan, and it as OUR fault for voting for the same power freaks over and over again.
Is this country ever going to wake up to the fact that for every barrel of pork, every bad law, every bribe taken, every constitutional order, and every bill of rights section violated, we have nobody but ourselves to blame?
Blame the politicians all we want, but we enable them. We vote them back in time after time. Hell, look at Delay: he probably would have been reelected if he hadn’t stepped down. How stupid are people?
WAKE UP PEOPLE!
kfg, Here is a link (off topic) you might enjoy (okay . . . two ;- 0; http://www.grassrootsonline.org/waterrights.html
http://www.polarisinstitute.org/polaris_project/water_lords/water_lords_index.html
I like the picture.
De Lay with his mouth open and his hand out.
Sort of how he got in trouble in the first place.
It’s also his future if he doesn’t go to prison.
Religion? unh uh, doesn’t pay enough.
No he’ll collect his fat pension while he does the fundie wingnut speech circuit. Then he’ll become a lobbyist on the fundie corporate wingnut circuit.
If Congress raised its pay and benefits only when it raised the federal minimum wage, I would not have so much of a problem with Congressional pay/fringe benefit rates. But we know who opposes en masse minimum wage increases – right? It sure as hell isn’t the Democrats. The federal minimum wage hasn’t been increased since about 1997, and Tiahrt’s wage has increased by $20,000/yr. since then. But of course HE NEEDS THE MONEY, not everyday citizens.
And the national debt has increased just during the time in office of Bush by as much as had been previously accummulated by all prior presidents. How is this the fault of the minority party? President Clinton and the Democratic Senate had balanced the federal budget, for heaven’s sake.
Great posts here.
Walker, thanks for the water links. I bookmarked them for ammunition later :)
I’m tellin’ ya, if I sound like chicken little about water… ALL water, it is because I have seen the future out here. And it is a dry future indeed.
If anyone thinks gay marriage or immigration is a hot issue, wait until dust comes out of your tap (or sludge) and you will see neighbors not even worrying about CC laws. They will just shoot water pigs on sight!
I didnt mean to jump on raptor. In fact, I agree with most of what he says.
It is just that when the whole abramoff thing started, there was a mad rush by republicans to point fingers and say “they did it too”.
Of course, that is the level of maturity we have come to tolerate in ALL of our elected officials from top to bottom. However, spinmeisters aside, THIS particular scandal is republican.
That’s not to say the next one wont be democrats. I support the creation of a legitimate third party. I still say we should call it the “git ‘er done” party!
Walker, RAMEN to your comments that we have no one to blame but ourselves for sending these bozos back, from city to county to state to national.
I am more inclined everyday to support term limits. Will that stop corruption? Probably not, humans being humans, they will ALWAYS find a way to game the system.
I used to think it was unfair to send good people home from washington or topeka just because there was an arbitrary term limit. Now? I think whatever “talent” gets sent home by term limits would be a small price to pay for getting the entrenched pigs out of the system.
Gosh, do I have PIGS on my mind today? Better go fry some bacon…
I certainly may be wrong, but I suspect that Mr. DeLay will get a lot larger reward than merely his pension for being the point-man and taking a bullet to the shoulder for his bosses and protecting them from getting hurt. Somebody ought to check into his well-being in 10 years.