CONGRESSIONAL BLUBBER: A Testament Of A Black Hole

Do Congressional Members get Brownie Points for the number of Bills they write?    It takes roughly 200 days to pass a bill in Congress.  Yet, despite Congress on sabbatical until January sometime, Democrats keep writing more Bills knowing that a Trump Presidency will never pass them.  What’s the point?  Unless they get a hidden spiff?

There are currently 19,047 Bills put before Congress that have yet to be passed or tossed.  The average passage rate is roughly 7%.   There are 26 Bills currently in limbo before a vacant Congress.  All 26 were written yesterday.  Some of the Bills are literally insane:  1)  A bill to change the designation of a park’s name by replacing ‘historical’ with ‘battlefield’.   2) A bill to reauthorize the Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum to support Holocaust education programs, and for other purposes.  3)  To reduce commuting burdens on Transportation Security Administration employees, and for other purposes.  4)  A bill to ensure that the National Advisory Council on Indian Education includes at least 1 member who is the president of a Tribal College or University.

This is what Congress does to establish credibility.   December 2024 – Congress was in session for 12 days.   November, Congress was in session 8 days.  Congress in session as of January 3^rd – which is noted as a New Congress based on November elections. 

ACCORDING TO THE GSA:

The average base starting salary for House Representatives is $174,000.  They are allowed earned income outside of Congress at 15% of their salary. In addition, they are provided with a standard office allowance of $134,400.  There is in place a clerk-hire component (revised for 2023 to $1,928,200 average for all Members) for permanent employees;   Temporary employees hired are paid from another pool of funds. 

Example:  in 2020, each Member’s MRA was increased by $62,250;  in 2021, each Member’s MRA was increased by $65,000.  Congressional Members are capped at hiring no more than 18 staff members at $212,000 each.  The average Senate MRA allowance is $4,349,700, based on the size of the state.  Office space for each senator is between 5,000 sq feet to 8200 sq feet and an allowance of $40,000 for furniture.  In addition, they have the ability to lease one mobile office.

Despite Federal workers not using their allocated office facilities, the Federal Government pays $6.2 billion for ‘leased property’ that houses no one.  Unfortunately, no one within the federal government or outside knows how much real property the government owns, where it is located, or its value because it is a secret.   National Security. 

None of these numbers even touch on the Pensions accumulated by Congress and their respective ‘staff’.  Federal employees have 3 sources of retirement benefits:  FERS, SS and Thrift Savings Plan.  The FERS Plan:  1 Utilize average 3 highest paying years x number of years in government x 1.1% = monthly payment.   Example:  $200,000x20x1.1% = $44,000 per month or $528,000 per year until death.  This would be over and above their SS and TSP.  Of the 2.7 million federal retirees, 44% receive FERS or 1.188 million.  ANNUAL COST = $627+ BILLION.  

WHY do Government employees receive Pensions AND Social Security?  Add to the fray Insider stock trades, and funny money dispositions of the “allowance”, and the waste is exponential!  THE BLACK HOLE of Congress.

Would anyone want to be a member of Congress if pensions, stock trades and allowances were eliminated?   I doubt it.

In 2020, Ted Cruz made $320,000 as an ‘author’.  Roughly half of that was a result of his campaign buying the books.  TWO Direct violations:  1) 15% outside earned income rule and 2)  Using campaign funds for personal gain.

The room for cutting waste is monumental and hopefully can help restructure the entire fraud committed annually at the expense of US Taxpayers trying to support themselves on savings and SS benefits.   IF the federal government were dissolved and all assets given over to every private citizen over the age of 18 (260-20 million millionaires)– we would each have $562,500 – roughly.  Because technically – Congress are OUR Employees and the value of all Assets belong to us.