House Expands Bonuses for Aides Making $168,411 a Year
The AIG bonuses sparked enough anger that liberal attack-dog ACORN took a busload of protestors to executives' homes to scare their families, including the executives' children.
The Washington Times published an article Wednesday disclosing a new bonus that the US House of Representatives snuck in for top aides. Stephen Dinan wrote in his article that one month after voting to punish executives at AIG who received bonuses with a confiscatory 90% tax, the House quietly expanded a program to repay student loans for House staffers. Under the expanded program, top congressional aides earning $168,411 a year are eligible to receive up to $10,000 each year towards repayment of student loans. (I guess we should consider that they do work for the House which probably means they can spend a measly $168,411 on their lunch hour.) Kyle Anderson, a spokesman for the House Administration Committee which has jurisdiction over internal House employment, salaries, and expenses explained, “There’s still a tremendous demand for high-end Hill talent even in this current job market. Expanding eligibility for the benefit allows us to retain valued and seasoned personnel who might otherwise be lured away to more financially lucrative pursuits.” The college loan payments are expected to cost taxpayers $12.6 million this year. The Senate and Executive branch offers similar benefits but neither branch allows employees earning as much as the House to be eligible.
If his excuse sounds familiar, it should because company spokesmen for AIG gave the exact same excuse for the bonuses they paid to executives which drew the anger from top Democrats in Congress who were up-at-arms for the AIG bonuses which had been specifically protected in an amendment to the stimulus bill. The offensive amendment was written by Democrat Senator and large AIG campaign donation recipient, Chris Dodd at the direction of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Even after the details were revealed, Democrats never toned down their indignation. In response, House Democrats rushed to pass a retroactive 90% tax on the AIG executives’ bonuses in order to reclaim the money. Just one month later, the House upped bonuses for their top staffers already earning $168,411 a year.
This is the same Congress that voted themselves a raise in the midst of skyrocketing unemployment and the subprime meltdown that led to the current deep recession. Just a couple of weeks ago, public outrage caused House Democrats to remove from an appropriations bill a request for several luxurious private jets for their own use. Members of Congress are completely out of touch with reality. They are spending our tax dollars freely and not giving second thought to any provision to reward themselves more. This does help explain how Democrats are so surprised at the outrage they are facing at town hall meetings across the nation. They can’t wait to get back to Capitol Hill where they don’t have to interact with the ignorant unwashed masses who are funding their spending orgy.