. . . while our national debt is now $17 TRILLION.
Just the other day Nancy Pelosi insisted that there were “no more cuts to make” to the federal budget.
Filthy rotten liar!
Here are ways the politicos in Congress, the White House, and the federal government bureaucracy are living like fatted pigs, at the expense of long-suffering taxpayers.
1. In one recent year, taxpayers spent more than $1.4 billion on the Obamas. Meanwhile, British taxpayers only spent about $58 million dollars on the entire royal family. Just one trip that the Obamas took — to Africa — cost U.S. taxpayers about $100 million.
2. The POS has only have one dog named “Bo”, but the White House “dog handler” reportedly makes $102,000 per year and sometimes he is even flown to where the POS and FLPOS are vacationing so that he can take care of Bo.
3. There is always at least one projectionist at the White House 24 hours a day just in case someone wants to watch a movie. Apparently turning on a DVD player is too much to ask.
4. During 2012, the salaries of Obama’s three climate change advisers combined came to a grand total of more than $370,000. Overall, 139 different White House staffers made at least $100,000 during 2012, 20 of whom made the maximum of $172,200.
5. Taxpayers also shell out beaucoup bucks for the VPOS. When Joe Biden and his staff took a recent trip to London, the hotel bill cost U.S. taxpayers $459,388.65. The VPOS stopped over in Paris, where the hotel bill for just one night was $585,000.50. When VPOS visited Moscow for two days in 2011, the total hotel bill came to $665,445.
6. Taxpayers spend an annual average of $4,005,900 per person on the “personal” and “office” expenses of U.S. senators. Those expenses include:
- Hair care: the Senate Hair Care Services cost taxpayers about $5.25 million over 15 years, including more than $40,000 for each of 6 barbers ($80,000 for the head barber) last fiscal year.
- Shoe shine: The shoeshine attendant at the U.S. Senate was paid more than $40,000 last year.
7. Congressional pensions: Once they leave Washington, former members of Congress continue to collect huge checks for the rest of their lives:
- In 2011, 280 former lawmakers who averaged around 20 years of service and retired under a former government pension system received average annual pensions of $70,620, according to a Congressional Research Service report. Another 215 retirees (elected in 1984 or later with an average of 15 years of service) received average annual checks of roughly $40,000 a year.
- Some former lawmakers are collecting federal pensions for life worth at least $100,000 annually. They include Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, Trent Lott, Dick Gephardt and Dick Cheney.
- Speaker of the House John Boehner will bring home a yearly pension of close to $85,000 if he left Congress when his current term ends in 2014.
8. Taxpayers also spend approximately $3.6 million a year to support the lavish lifestyles of former presidents Jimmy Carter, George Bush the elder, Bill Clinton, and George Bush the younger, who are all multimillionaires.
9. Nearly 500,000 federal employees make at least $100,000 a year. During one recent year, the average federal employee in the Washington D.C. area received total compensation worth more than $126,000. During one recent year, compensation for federal employees came to a grand total of approximately $447 billion. 77,000 federal workers make more than the governors of their own states do.
Note that Congress is full of millionaires:
- More than half of those “serving the American people” in Congress are millionaires.
- The richest five are Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), with a minimum net worth (MNW) in 2011 of $300 million; former Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), with a MNW of $198.65 million; and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), with a MNW of $140.55 million; Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), with a MNW of $85.81 million; and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), with a MNW of $83.08 million.
- The 50th most wealthy member of Congress has a net worth of $6.14 million.
- According to Roll Call’s annual survey of Congressional wealth, the super wealthy in Congress are getting much wealthier although the average U.S. household is making less income than the supposed end of the Great Recession 4 years ago.
Source: Economic Collapse Blog
~Eowyn
