A couple of days ago I mentioned that I heard some old-time Dodgers on the local all-news radio station @KNX1070 (Maury Wills, Steve Garvey).
Maury said he was paid the minimum pro-salary when he started in 1959, which was $4,000 (equal to $32K in 2013 dollars — appropriate, since my hero Sandy Koufax wore number 32).
Maury also said his 1964 Worlds Series check was $10,000 or $12,000 (about $80,000 now).
Times are certainly different now, but the multimillion dollar salaries paid to athletes now make them forget what it’s like to be a have-not.
The nutty emos are already there. Just the fact that Russia/Putin took Snowjob in makes them better than the U.S./Obama, which some of them are convinced would have tortured or killed ol’ Snowy. The Loony Left in effect.
So when will they join their Golden Boy in Russia?
What’s this Utal, I blink and we are officially tri-lingual?!! Charting new territory, are we? Go for it, then! 😀 😀
Hi…Salut…Hola (hope I got them right), TODobots! Got most of my chores out of the way before signing on today…. except I’ve got to go pick up my car in about an hour. 😀
In the House of Representatives, the Members’ Representational Allowance (MRA) is made available to help members defray expenses resulting from three specific components of their “representational duties,” those being; the personal expenses component; the office expenses component; and the mailing expenses component.
The House sets the funding levels for the MRA annually as part of the federal budget process. According to the CRS report, this amount decreased from a total of $660 million for fiscal year 2010, to $573.9 million for fiscal year 2012.
In 2012, individual representatives received MRA allowances ranging from $1,270,129 to $1,564,613, with an average of $1,353,205.13.
Most of each member’s annual MRA allowance is used to pay their office personnel. In 2012, for example, the office personnel allowance for each member was $944,671.
Each member is allowed to use their MRA to employ up to18 full time, permanent employees and up to four part time or temporary employees. The annual salary of any employee of a member of the House of Representatives is currently limited to $168,411 (in 2013).
PLUS: Current member get the luxury of using ANY military hospital AND the staff Dr that is on the premises of the Congressmen/women
Senators have an even LARGER expense account (taxpayer money!) That info is included in the link.
And WE THE TAXPAYERS< PAY UP TO 75% OF THEIR PREMIUMS!
As stated previously, the federal government pays 72% of the weighted average premium of all
plans in the program, not to exceed 75% of any given plan’s premium for federal employees and
annuitants. Although premiums are calculated separately for single and family coverage, the
formula is the same. In a survey of large firms, on average employers paid 82% of the premium
for single plans and 75% of the premium for family plans for current employees.11 In a survey of
state and local government employers of all sizes, on average employers paid 88% of the
premium for single coverage and 76% of the premium for family coverage for current
employees.12
Federal government retirees are eligible for FEHBP coverage with the same benefits and the same
cost as active employees.13 In a survey of large firms that offer health benefits to active
employees, only 25% offer health benefits to retirees. In a survey of large state and local
government employers with more than 200 employees, a subset of the aforementioned group of
large firms, 77% offer health benefits to retirees.
So….all town hall meetings should have a question related to this, and make them square their "distain" for BIG GOVT…while being totally ok with it when it applies to them and THEIR FAMILY!
Then there are about 5-10 lawmakers living in their Offices and paying Zero Rent, lodging free of charge and Not even paying any taxes back on that accommodations or even reporting that as income earned in their tax returns.. The Curly haired guy from UT is one of them.
Yes:) But you see my point though….great for me, but not for thee! All the while, being the hypocrites they are…taking the taxpayers money, while never producing for the taxpayers in return. TERRIBLE RETURN ON OUR INVESTMENT…VOTE THEM OUT!
Geez, sorry about posting the tweet above twice (mistake).
Politico has changed the title of their article that Morning Joe mentioned to the now bland “Hill gets Obamacare fix.” Here’s the original story headline:
Screenshot from Morning Joe today. Joe: Congress passes laws, then they exempt themselves from laws… pic.twitter.com/GQc0zmT6DX
Interesting! Thanks, Df. I suppose it never occurred to the owners that while there ARE options to get your salary without paying fees, there might be employees who do not understand that. So in effect they would be losing some of their already low minimum wage salary because they didn’t understand the nuances of the card! Ay yai yai!
Sure, let’s claw back their hard-earned money (for your rich pals) a little bit at a time, because some may not be on the ball enough to read/understand the fine prints.
It’s practices like these that sometimes lead the ‘poor’ or lower middle class to feel they can’t ever win, while you have the Romney & GOP-types saying they are all lazy and don’t want to be responsible.
Hello TOD! Was on vacation and deprived of reading TOD, almost went into withdrawal symptoms, fortunately arrived home before that happened. Trying to read every word I missed. Above re: Mitchy , needs to be repeated over and over and over, now and until next election.
tiger woods absolutely dominating at a prestigious golf tournament right now. republican trickle-downer whiner phil mickelson tanking and currently 14 shots behind tiger and tiger isn’t even done with his 2nd round…tiger still has 7 holes to play yet today.
Next time those right wing haters want to talk about POTUS vacations, let’s remind them that Congress is out on vacation the whole month of August, and POTUS and his family will have eight days in Matha Vineyard.
Any company or individual demonstrating even a fraction of the dereliction of duty displayed by the 113th Congress would either be out of business, being sued (or both) or fired for cause with whatever legal recourse the company had available to it in the employee’s contract.
Gross dereliction of duty is an understatement in characterizing the 113th Congress. Do we have any legal recourse to sue? @Pfeiffer44@OFA
Exactly, Bob. These frauds are making almost $200K base annually with platinum health care – all at taxpayer expense. Those who want to talk about PBO’s “vacations” should be outraged about this but they aren’t!
So UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron has hired PBO’s 2012 campaign strategist Jim Messina to serve as a consultant for his re-election bid in 2015. LOL! I hope Cameron realizes that its the candidate who REALLY is the driving force behind victories….
PBO’s campaigns have been the envy and admiration of the national and international communities. In 2009 Nut n Yahoo emulated PBO’s 2008 campaign webpage, and told his advisers that he wanted “an Obama-style” election. And now we see Cameron trying to tap into some of PBO’s genius data collection/ social media techniques.
Hmmm….I don’t recall anyone trying to emulate Romney or McCain’s campaigns.
“in response to Snowden” I don’t buy that part. Whether it’s coming from the AP or FOX news. That’s MSM spin.
Either this was a program that ran it’s natural course and simply wasn’t renewed. The surveillance programs will not end simply because of Snowjob. These programs are constantly reviewed and discarded if they’re not bringing any benefit.
Ever notice when you can’t do something, that’s when you really want to do it? Anyone here ever met the apparent conservative hater ‘RJ @rjames1928’? He gave a typical RWNJ answer to a couple of my tweets which I decided it would be a waste of time to answer. So I wandered around elsewhere, then thought, maybe I WILL answer one of them, only to discover ‘You are not authorized to look up related results for that Tweet’. They are so confident of their positions that they throw out their convictions then run and hide. 🙄 Nothing new, I know, but since we are not caught up with serious discussions, I figure I could ramble. 😉
Some legal recourse must exist. Short of what Jeff Davis did, no other group of elected officials has sabotaged America more than the #GOP since 20 Jan 2009.
Of course president Obama will be informed and kept up with what his Team and the Intel are doing about all the terror threats. This guy just tweets as if to say he is doing any reporting,
Okay, you guys liked version #1 last year, so I’m sharing version #2 with you a couple of days early and asking you to help me spread it over the next two days. A special president deserves his own birthday song IMO. 😀
Two conservative justices on the Supreme Court have raised questions about laws regarding ethics and conflicts-of-interest when it comes to the cases that the SCOTUS reviews. Unlike all other federal judges, Supreme Court justices are not responsible for following the Code of Conduct for United States judges. Instead, they are given broad latitude and authority to recuse themselves from cases if they feel that is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, in the cases of Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, they have failed to do so, and have faced heat from concerned citizens multiple times for alleged conflicts of interest. With respect to past events, a group of Democrats plan to bring forward legislation to force Supreme Court to adhere to a system of ethics.
Right now, there is no process for citizens to complain or make a complaint about the ethical performance of judges on the Supreme Court
Bravo to the “group of Democrats.” Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas need to be put in check. Scalia was so blatantly unethical in the “Bush v. Gore” case.
I thought the UK Conservative party is left of our Democrats. I may be wrong, and will stand corrected, but I think it has to do with them having more than 2 major parties.
Not at all cookemom – the conservative party is conservative – Thatcher inc. – the left party in the UK is supposedly the Labor party (no-one is true left any more – Tony Blaid who loved George Bush was labor). There is also a liberal party and liberal democrats – and I don’t truly understand where they fit – a Brit will have to define those two. I think the lib dems are currently in a coalition with the conservatives as neither party had enough for a majority. Desire for power can make interesting friends.
In the politics of my country, the liberal party is to the right.
thanks 99. I may be thinking of where the liberal party is right, but I thought that was the UK. I never understood what the Labor party stood for and thought they were more independent thinking.
In days of yore – the labor party stood for labor – Thatcher & co following on from people like Murdock in the 70s) did all in their power to discredit unions – blaming them for all that is bad in the world – so labor party (UK & Australia) tend to have moved away from their base. Lots of academic liberals joined the labor party in my world – probably UK as well. It is a disjointed collection of very different people – perhaps not unlike the US democrats.
Every politician in the world who speaks (or has a staff that speaks) English know that the current of GOP are neanderthals dragging their women back to the cave.
The last time PBO was in England I really enjoyed Brit tweets, mostly saying that the pols there were hoping that some of PBO’s fairy dust would rub off on them.
The Obama Diary 
Hi all!
Congrats Allison
Thanks, japa21. Checking in from Puerto Vallerta!
Lucky you!
Ooooooo, fun!! Don’t get burnt!!
Hi, Japa.
A couple of days ago I mentioned that I heard some old-time Dodgers on the local all-news radio station @KNX1070 (Maury Wills, Steve Garvey).
Maury said he was paid the minimum pro-salary when he started in 1959, which was $4,000 (equal to $32K in 2013 dollars — appropriate, since my hero Sandy Koufax wore number 32).
Maury also said his 1964 Worlds Series check was $10,000 or $12,000 (about $80,000 now).
Times are certainly different now, but the multimillion dollar salaries paid to athletes now make them forget what it’s like to be a have-not.
Me too. Lol!
The nutty emos are already there. Just the fact that Russia/Putin took Snowjob in makes them better than the U.S./Obama, which some of them are convinced would have tortured or killed ol’ Snowy. The Loony Left in effect.
So when will they join their Golden Boy in Russia?
🙄 😆 🙄
I bet LOD reads this blog 🙂
I think they all do. It has the name “Obama” in it – which is a stimulant for any MSM 🙂 🙂
Now we know why God is all powerful. Great tweets!
What’s this Utal, I blink and we are officially tri-lingual?!! Charting new territory, are we? Go for it, then! 😀 😀
Hi…Salut…Hola (hope I got them right), TODobots! Got most of my chores out of the way before signing on today…. except I’ve got to go pick up my car in about an hour. 😀
Hola or holla,……at you too!
😆 😆 I’ll take the first and ignore the second. 😆
Just doing a little digging around this morning, to see what “big govt” has brought to those “small govt” wannbes. TAKERS, anyone?
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/uscongress/a/congresspay.htm
$174,000/yr PLUS an annual allowance
In the House of Representatives, the Members’ Representational Allowance (MRA) is made available to help members defray expenses resulting from three specific components of their “representational duties,” those being; the personal expenses component; the office expenses component; and the mailing expenses component.
The House sets the funding levels for the MRA annually as part of the federal budget process. According to the CRS report, this amount decreased from a total of $660 million for fiscal year 2010, to $573.9 million for fiscal year 2012.
In 2012, individual representatives received MRA allowances ranging from $1,270,129 to $1,564,613, with an average of $1,353,205.13.
Most of each member’s annual MRA allowance is used to pay their office personnel. In 2012, for example, the office personnel allowance for each member was $944,671.
Each member is allowed to use their MRA to employ up to18 full time, permanent employees and up to four part time or temporary employees. The annual salary of any employee of a member of the House of Representatives is currently limited to $168,411 (in 2013).
PLUS: Current member get the luxury of using ANY military hospital AND the staff Dr that is on the premises of the Congressmen/women
Senators have an even LARGER expense account (taxpayer money!) That info is included in the link.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS21982.pdf This link is to the actual packet for them
Health Benefits for Members of Congress
And WE THE TAXPAYERS< PAY UP TO 75% OF THEIR PREMIUMS!
As stated previously, the federal government pays 72% of the weighted average premium of all
plans in the program, not to exceed 75% of any given plan’s premium for federal employees and
annuitants. Although premiums are calculated separately for single and family coverage, the
formula is the same. In a survey of large firms, on average employers paid 82% of the premium
for single plans and 75% of the premium for family plans for current employees.11 In a survey of
state and local government employers of all sizes, on average employers paid 88% of the
premium for single coverage and 76% of the premium for family coverage for current
employees.12
Federal government retirees are eligible for FEHBP coverage with the same benefits and the same
cost as active employees.13 In a survey of large firms that offer health benefits to active
employees, only 25% offer health benefits to retirees. In a survey of large state and local
government employers with more than 200 employees, a subset of the aforementioned group of
large firms, 77% offer health benefits to retirees.
So….all town hall meetings should have a question related to this, and make them square their "distain" for BIG GOVT…while being totally ok with it when it applies to them and THEIR FAMILY!
We also pay for their Travel allowances 100%.
Then there are about 5-10 lawmakers living in their Offices and paying Zero Rent, lodging free of charge and Not even paying any taxes back on that accommodations or even reporting that as income earned in their tax returns.. The Curly haired guy from UT is one of them.
Yes:) But you see my point though….great for me, but not for thee! All the while, being the hypocrites they are…taking the taxpayers money, while never producing for the taxpayers in return. TERRIBLE RETURN ON OUR INVESTMENT…VOTE THEM OUT!
Good counterpoint for those idiots that say govt should be run like a business…..ok then…our return on investment SUCKS!
About 2 minutes into this segment, Joe Scarborough had a cow this morning about this very point — how Congress *always* exempts themselves.
I’m beginning to think they’re the scum of the earth.
The thing that immediately came to mind was lifting the FAA from the sequester rules…because, you know, THEY have to fly home. I detest them.
Geez, sorry about posting the tweet above twice (mistake).
Politico has changed the title of their article that Morning Joe mentioned to the now bland “Hill gets Obamacare fix.” Here’s the original story headline:
Hmmm… all I need to do is two agonizing years in DC?
hmmmmmmmmmm
Do it girl! Where do I send my donation to your campaign?!! 😀
HEY!!!! Yes, I’m alive. Just been bizzzzzy.
(((HUGS)))) EVERYONE!
There you are! I asked about you yesterday…wondering where our Tally was:)
{{{{Tally}}}} You’ve surfaced! 😀
/wagging finger/ Please don’t forget to wave periodically, even if you have to do it while you are on the run.
Hugs backatcha!!!
Bob Cesca is on top of this stuff:
http://thedailybanter.com/2013/08/another-wild-story-about-government-spying-circulates-the-internet-only-to-be-debunked-later/
Saw that earlier. They really are pathetic
OMG…..
Corporate casino
Is this even true? It seems so farfetched.
Yes…it’s true.
http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/feds-investigating-mcdonald-s-franchise-over-payroll-debit-cards-1.1509690
Interesting! Thanks, Df. I suppose it never occurred to the owners that while there ARE options to get your salary without paying fees, there might be employees who do not understand that. So in effect they would be losing some of their already low minimum wage salary because they didn’t understand the nuances of the card! Ay yai yai!
I guess quite a few low-wage earners are being paid this way now.
Sure, let’s claw back their hard-earned money (for your rich pals) a little bit at a time, because some may not be on the ball enough to read/understand the fine prints.
It’s practices like these that sometimes lead the ‘poor’ or lower middle class to feel they can’t ever win, while you have the Romney & GOP-types saying they are all lazy and don’t want to be responsible.
Dayum! That is just wrong!
Hello TOD! Was on vacation and deprived of reading TOD, almost went into withdrawal symptoms, fortunately arrived home before that happened. Trying to read every word I missed. Above re: Mitchy , needs to be repeated over and over and over, now and until next election.
Hi Anna! Welcome Home!
You’re right. Somebody needs this to his opponent too.
… needs to send this to his opponent… 🙂
Moreover ….
http://www.businessinsider.com/us-statutory-and-effective-tax-rates-2013-7
The Average Big American Company Hasn’t Paid The Statutory Tax Rate In At Least 45 Years
tiger woods absolutely dominating at a prestigious golf tournament right now. republican trickle-downer whiner phil mickelson tanking and currently 14 shots behind tiger and tiger isn’t even done with his 2nd round…tiger still has 7 holes to play yet today.
Tiger needs to get his majors mojo back. I want to see him break the Nicklaus record.
Me too
Next time those right wing haters want to talk about POTUS vacations, let’s remind them that Congress is out on vacation the whole month of August, and POTUS and his family will have eight days in Matha Vineyard.
Any company or individual demonstrating even a fraction of the dereliction of duty displayed by the 113th Congress would either be out of business, being sued (or both) or fired for cause with whatever legal recourse the company had available to it in the employee’s contract.
We simply cannot allow this to continue for another year and 1/2 when we fire as many of the GOP as we can.
#LandslideDEMS2014 That’s a MANDATE
Yes We Can
Exactly, Bob. These frauds are making almost $200K base annually with platinum health care – all at taxpayer expense. Those who want to talk about PBO’s “vacations” should be outraged about this but they aren’t!
You are absolutely right Bob! These people don’t deserve being paid six figure incomes for doing nothing to improve the lives of Americans.
I hope that is okay with Mark Knoller.
Anniebella, if it’s not ok with MK, then he can KMA…my president owes him nothing
So UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron has hired PBO’s 2012 campaign strategist Jim Messina to serve as a consultant for his re-election bid in 2015. LOL! I hope Cameron realizes that its the candidate who REALLY is the driving force behind victories….
http://www.usatoday.com/story/theoval/2013/08/02/obama-messina-david-cameron-british-elections/2612239/
PBO’s campaigns have been the envy and admiration of the national and international communities. In 2009 Nut n Yahoo emulated PBO’s 2008 campaign webpage, and told his advisers that he wanted “an Obama-style” election. And now we see Cameron trying to tap into some of PBO’s genius data collection/ social media techniques.
Hmmm….I don’t recall anyone trying to emulate Romney or McCain’s campaigns.
Astonishing!
You can tell that Pete Souza and Bo share a special bond! 🙂 🙂
LOL! The camaraderie and mutual affection in this cabinet is simply amazing….
Such a hero.
LOL! I don’t believe that report from FOX News either. Snowden is not that influential.
It’s actually an AP report and it’s been confirmed by the U.S. Embassy.
“in response to Snowden” I don’t buy that part. Whether it’s coming from the AP or FOX news. That’s MSM spin.
Either this was a program that ran it’s natural course and simply wasn’t renewed. The surveillance programs will not end simply because of Snowjob. These programs are constantly reviewed and discarded if they’re not bringing any benefit.
Tend to agree – they probably have a new agreement with a new name – and prefer to keep it away from Snowden, Russia & their ilk 🙂 🙂
Indeed…that’s my thinking as well….
Ever notice when you can’t do something, that’s when you really want to do it? Anyone here ever met the apparent conservative hater ‘RJ @rjames1928’? He gave a typical RWNJ answer to a couple of my tweets which I decided it would be a waste of time to answer. So I wandered around elsewhere, then thought, maybe I WILL answer one of them, only to discover ‘You are not authorized to look up related results for that Tweet’. They are so confident of their positions that they throw out their convictions then run and hide. 🙄 Nothing new, I know, but since we are not caught up with serious discussions, I figure I could ramble. 😉
hahahaha…not a ramble at all….it has happened to me as well….
😀 😀 They are so confident in their hatred and their biased arguments, yet not confident enough to re-examine their positions if new data is shared. 🙄
They’ve gone too far …. the damage is calculable and it’s already likely in the billions of dollars & growing daily.
Some legal recourse must exist. Short of what Jeff Davis did, no other group of elected officials has sabotaged America more than the #GOP since 20 Jan 2009.
This guy is so pathetic…..it is no longer funny.
Of course president Obama will be informed and kept up with what his Team and the Intel are doing about all the terror threats. This guy just tweets as if to say he is doing any reporting,
Knoller has an extreme grasp of the obvious. I almost pity him.
OMG……EXTREME GRASP OF THE OBVIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOLOLOL
Ha! Fits, doesn’t it?
Okay, you guys liked version #1 last year, so I’m sharing version #2 with you a couple of days early and asking you to help me spread it over the next two days. A special president deserves his own birthday song IMO. 😀
You actually have to click on the soundcloud link in the tweet itself in order to see the accompanying words.
Two conservative justices on the Supreme Court have raised questions about laws regarding ethics and conflicts-of-interest when it comes to the cases that the SCOTUS reviews. Unlike all other federal judges, Supreme Court justices are not responsible for following the Code of Conduct for United States judges. Instead, they are given broad latitude and authority to recuse themselves from cases if they feel that is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, in the cases of Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, they have failed to do so, and have faced heat from concerned citizens multiple times for alleged conflicts of interest. With respect to past events, a group of Democrats plan to bring forward legislation to force Supreme Court to adhere to a system of ethics.
Right now, there is no process for citizens to complain or make a complaint about the ethical performance of judges on the Supreme Court
Bravo to the “group of Democrats.” Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas need to be put in check. Scalia was so blatantly unethical in the “Bush v. Gore” case.
Kinda surprised that Cameron didn’t hire a republican considering that Cameron belongs to the conservative party of the UK.
I thought the UK Conservative party is left of our Democrats. I may be wrong, and will stand corrected, but I think it has to do with them having more than 2 major parties.
Not at all cookemom – the conservative party is conservative – Thatcher inc. – the left party in the UK is supposedly the Labor party (no-one is true left any more – Tony Blaid who loved George Bush was labor). There is also a liberal party and liberal democrats – and I don’t truly understand where they fit – a Brit will have to define those two. I think the lib dems are currently in a coalition with the conservatives as neither party had enough for a majority. Desire for power can make interesting friends.
In the politics of my country, the liberal party is to the right.
thanks 99. I may be thinking of where the liberal party is right, but I thought that was the UK. I never understood what the Labor party stood for and thought they were more independent thinking.
In days of yore – the labor party stood for labor – Thatcher & co following on from people like Murdock in the 70s) did all in their power to discredit unions – blaming them for all that is bad in the world – so labor party (UK & Australia) tend to have moved away from their base. Lots of academic liberals joined the labor party in my world – probably UK as well. It is a disjointed collection of very different people – perhaps not unlike the US democrats.
Hyper Consevative, cookemom
Pundit heads here are spinning.
But how marketable is any GOP consultant?
Every politician in the world who speaks (or has a staff that speaks) English know that the current of GOP are neanderthals dragging their women back to the cave.
The last time PBO was in England I really enjoyed Brit tweets, mostly saying that the pols there were hoping that some of PBO’s fairy dust would rub off on them.
New post.
http://theobamadiary.com/2013/08/02/news-of-the-day-12/