What you paid
Last week, taxpayers spent roughly $107 million on Congress.
Salaries of Members of Congress and their allowances/week:
Speaker of the House: $223,500/52 = $4,299
House and Senate Majority and Minority Leaders: ($193,400/52) x 4 = $14,877
Other Representatives and Senators: ($174,000/52) x 530 = $1,773,462
Allowance for staff salaries and misc: ($1,500,000/52) x 535 = $15,432,692
Non-salary money allocated for Congress: $4.656 billion/52 = $89,538,462
What you got
Members of the House and Senate were home for their nearly six week “August Recess.” But don’t worry (or do worry?), they’ll be back September 13.
Many lawmakers are documenting their summer travel on their Facebook pages. See if you can find your member and then head on over to our Facebook page to tell us what they’re doing and whether you’re getting your money’s worth this August.
I think you all misunderstand economics. If the government stops spending, that takes money out of the economy — in a time when no one is spending. Prognosis: disaster.
Also, the deficit concern trolling is a bit disingenuous when you only come out upon the election of Democrats. The GOP gave us the biggest social program in history, Medicare Part D, and two unfunded wars. Where were you then?
I’m all for reducing the deficit, but let’s take care of it when we’re back on our feet lest we never get back there (like Ireland).
DEAR CONGRESS, WILL YOU STOP SPENDING MONEY ON STUPID WARS. WILL YOU STOP SPENDING MONEY ONE EVERYTHING AND YOURSELVES. IT’S VERY AMAZING HOW UNINFORMED PEOPLE REALLY ARE. THEY VOTE WITH THEIR EMOTIONS AND AMERICANS VOTE AGAINST THEIR ECONOMIC CLASS. RIDICULOUS EXPENDITURE OF MONEY ON KEEPNG YOYR JOBS. WHY VOTE WHEN EVERYONE WHO GETS ELECTED SPENDS MONEY LIKE A DRUNKEN SAILOR?
mcd, you clearly have a basic misunderstanding of where the government gets money. It takes it out of the private sector through taxation (away from individuals and private businesses that could spend it to create jobs) or borrows it. The government never has and never will create or produce wealth, all it can do is redistribute it. I don’t think anyone is suggesting that the government stop spending all together; what they are suggesting is that the government stick to its Constitutionally granted powers. FDR’s New Deal didn’t end the Great Depression, and the current version, the stimulus, will not work either. The stimulus has failed by every objective measure, that’s why the measure of its success is ever changing, first it was “jobs created”, next came “jobs created or saved”, then it was “jobs funded” and is currently “lives touched”, my bet for the next metric is “jobs not destroyed”.