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Ear to the Ground

House Votes to Pay Nation’s Bills, Tosses In a Bit for Itself

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Posted on Sep 25, 2009
Flickr / gregwest98

The rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.

The House of Representatives decided it was worth keeping this whole America thing going, and passed a temporary spending bill while lawmakers hammered out the usual long-term budgets. The new funds will help keep the Postal Service afloat and expand House office budgets by 8 percent.

The average House staffer isn’t exactly raking it in, and assuming this expanded budget isn’t going toward a cushier chair for the big cheese, perhaps a raise is in order.

But then again, if a global economic meltdown isn’t an occasion for belt-tightening, what is?  —PS

AP via Yahoo:

The underlying House-Senate compromise on the congressional operations budget was non-controversial. All told, Congress is rewarding itself with a 6 percent budget boost, though the $51 million increase for the House office budget account represents an 8 percent increase.

The Senate rewarded itself with a 6 percent boost for its office accounts.

The financially struggling Postal Service would be allowed to delay $4 billion in payments due next month to a health care fund for retirees. Some $5.4 billion is supposed to be paid into the Retiree Health Benefits Fund, but Postal officials say they don’t have enough money to make the payment.

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By Big Wes, September 26, 2009 at 9:43 am Link to this comment

If Mr. Smith went to Washington today, he would be at the beck and call of the lobbyists or his party wouldn’t contribute to his campaign.  The system could take a person with the best intentions and destroy them.  And if someone could make it into office and maintain their integrity, their colleagues would render them powerless.  The voice of integrity would be lost in the din of corruption.  Dennis Kucinich is an example of this.

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By Rodger Lemonde, September 26, 2009 at 7:02 am Link to this comment

The sad truth is that anyone who is electable is
damaged goods by the time they take office. This little
ploy is equivalent to the “shipping and handling” in a
sham wow ad.

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By Bat Guano, September 26, 2009 at 6:31 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Wonderful - now all we have to do is borrow the money to pay for it. Over and over again.

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By Jim Yell, September 26, 2009 at 6:28 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Keep in mind that the post office has been a major factor in the binding of disparate peoples into an American Idenity. It was and still is a brilliant civilizing service and is a comfort and joy to Americans.

The reform of the post office was an attempt by Reagan to kill it off and deliver a large amount of profit to the private sector. Still we have the Post Office and I think it gives the only real competition to the “brown shirts”.

As far as 8% more for congress people’s staff, well I think they spend too much of our money already, most of it is thinly disguised self-advertising and how many of us are impressed when we write a letter of concern to our elected representitives and get back a form letter that doesn’t even come close to addressing our concern. If they want to impress us, why not stop taking bribes from corporations and why not write bills that make sense, instead of needing a 100 lawyers to tell you what they meant?

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By stcfarms, September 25, 2009 at 10:21 pm Link to this comment

When you give value to the fiat money you give the criminal government
power. To take away this power all you have to do is become self sufficient.
When you are self sufficient you no longer have to trade your labor for food,
water or energy. If you do not have to earn money then you are not just off the
grid, you are off the radar.

The sad truth for the bankers is that whoever ends up with the money is
responsible for the debt. I never signed a contract to become responsible for
the debt and I never will. Making the people responsible for the debt was a
scam, a ponzi scheme worthy of Niccolo Machiavelli. The original crooks are
all dead but their progeny now rule because some damn morons continue to
feed the beast their labor.

The empire is a black hole that has sucked in both political parties,
government at all levels is firmly in their grip. The good news is that they do
not yet claim the deep ocean. The bad news it that is the deep ocean. Freedom
exists only on the frontier, civilization is the disease, the frontier is the cure.

You can spend your lives fighting the empire or you can leave the empire to
it’s creditors. Ex pats had the right idea but they did not go far enough, the
empire will attempt to bill someone for the debt…

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By herewegoagain, September 25, 2009 at 5:34 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

These fools really don’t get it, do they?

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LostHills's avatar

By LostHills, September 25, 2009 at 5:00 pm Link to this comment

Make hay while the sun shines, for in 2010 ye may meet your doom….

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By SteveL, September 25, 2009 at 4:28 pm Link to this comment

Keep in mind the Postal Service delivers the mail unlike the banking and financial
industries which has delivered a worldwide recession.

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By voice of truth, September 25, 2009 at 12:46 pm Link to this comment

PS clearly doesn’t stay appraised of current events.  Just a month or so ago the congress gave raises and bonuses to their staffers, well above what the average worker got.

Is anyone actually surprised that they would keep paying themselves more at our expense?

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