If Congress can Have this,Why can't all Americans have the same

This raping of the tax payers has gone on long enough.
Someone should do a comparison of say what perks and salary and special care a senior senator/congressman can have and a junior senator's top perks and freshman senators (Congressmen); then divide it by the days they actually showed up for work....or the minimum they need to show up...ie Bob Casey(rarely shows up unless he's hyping himself to run for the next rung on the ladder).
You'd be shocked at the total amount of money thrown at these guys for minimal work. Then compare it to another college educated position, like a social worker. Or a charge nurse, ok maybe a teacher.
Remember we're doing it by total perks/divided by days worked!

Lawmakers jack up spending for themselves: $500K for town halls

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/27640

Politico

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., left, accompanied by House AP – Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., left, accompanied by House Minority Leader John Boehner …
Manu Raju Manu Raju – Wed Sep 30, 5:57 am ET

Congress is on the verge of giving itself a bump in its annual budget — even as local governments, families and businesses across the country are tightening their belts in the worst recession in decades.

Under a House-Senate conference measure, approved by the House last week and poised for passage in the Senate on Wednesday, spending for the legislative branch will increase 5.8 percent this year, boosting Capitol Hill’s annual budget to $4.7 billion.

The measure includes a hodgepodge of new funding for lawmakers: a $500,000 pilot program for senators to send out postcards about their town hall meetings, $30,000 for receptions for foreign dignitaries and $4 million for consultants — with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) getting up to nine each and Senate President Pro Tempore Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) getting up to three more.

There’s $15.8 million for salaries for the Senate Appropriations Committee — plus an extra $950,000 for the committee’s administrative expenses.

Funding for House office buildings will jump a staggering 128 percent, to $84 million. Some of that money will go to replace a roof at the Rayburn House Office Building, and an additional $50 million is being allocated to renovate the Cannon House Office Building.

The Architect of the Capitol will see a 17.8 percent hike to deal with infrastructure repairs, and the Government Printing Office’s revolving fund will increase a whopping 155 percent, to $12.7 million, to deal with technology upgrades and repairs, according to the conference report.

The bill — which President Barack Obama could sign as soon as Wednesday — funds operations and staff salaries in the personal offices of the 535 members of Congress, dozens of legislative committees in the House and Senate, the GPO, the Office of the Architect of the Capitol, the Government Accountability Office and the Capitol Police.

Supporters of the bill argue that they were relatively frugal this year. Last year, Congress increased its funding 10.9 percent over the fiscal 2008 level — and the $4.7 it’s appropriating to itself this year is less than the $5 billion Obama set forth in his budget earlier this year.

“This is a fiscally responsible bill,” said Jake Thompson, spokesman for Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), chairman of the Senate’s legislative branch appropriations subcommittee.

But not everyone agrees.

“With an enormous deficit and rest of the country tightening their belts, Congress should be looking at doing the same,” said Steve Ellis, vice president of the Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Added Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.): “The growth of expenditures particularly in these times is terrible.”

The Appropriations Committee disputes that funding increased by 5.8 percent, arguing that the real number is 3.5 percent — or $157 million — because of emergency spending and the $787 billion economic stimulus that added to Congress’s budget. But critics call the move a budget gimmick that does not represent a true apples-to-apples comparison of the amount of money Congress approved in last year’s spending bills versus the fiscal 2010 bills.

The bill contains just one earmark — a $200,000 Nelson project for a museum in Omaha, Neb. — and it includes language added by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) to force the Senate for the first time to put its expenses online.

“We have not seen a significant increase in overall legislative branch expenditures since nearly 2001,” said Jonathan Beeton, a spokesman for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Nelson’s counterpart in the House. “During this time, significant cost increases have occurred, a

In US race to power positions are for all the perks including vote for their own raise and life above the law. These elected officials no longer serve the people of a great and democratic nation and protect the great land of opportunities.

As in Rome,the Senate got fat and comfy,giving Nothing to their Plebeians,, all the while the Too Many Plebeians foot their bill as the senate wined and dined in comfort,,Thus Rome Burnt as most of the roads leading to and from turned to weeds as the roots engulfed the stone,
was that a lesson to be learned by the Rome elitists or does history truly constantly repeat it self regardless of location,via the senate/tors/reps/gov.,,
was it Einstein that said,“insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results ” from the Plebeians,the country, hmmm could that appear to be true for all the senate/reps/congress,not realizing all of Rome Burnt out and the Plebeians moved on.

ITs amazing that hardly anyone talks about how the healthcare for citizens is literally shit compared to what the senators get. Why dont we get the same perks at the same prices as they do?? I could assume it is because we do not directly control the laws that affect the healthcare buisness....

Because there are too many proles.