Cough It Up

It really pissed me off last year that our tax dollars were used to pay a bunch of United States Senators and other Congressmen that were chronically absent from their high paying jobs while running political campaigns for President.

I have previously complained about this issue and I wondered if there wasn’t something that could be done about it. Remember that Senator Bob Dole resigned his seat prior to the 1996 campaign and, when he lost the presidential election, he was out of a job?

Not so with the jackass-war-hero-commander-in-chief-want-a-be Senator John Kerry. He is still looming over the lives of the citizens of Massachusetts that elected him and intruding into all of our lives on a national basis as a result of staying in office durring the campaign. He was virtually invisible for most of 2004 on the floor of the US Senate (although that might be considered by most in a positive light.)

Well, good news people...there is hope after all.

According to The Washington Times Insider edition, there is a law that can and should be used to make Kerry and others pay back their unearned government income.

"Several lawmakers on Capitol Hill, including Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and his vice presidential running mate, former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, have broken a federal statute by pocketing thousands of dollars in salary while being away from their jobs during 2003 and 2004."

" An obscure federal statute requires congressional absentees to forfeit pay unless they or a family member are ill, but some lawmakers seem reluctant to comply, says the National Taxpayers Union."

"The NTU says "chronically absent" members of the 108th Congress, besides Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards, include Democratic presidential candidates Bob Graham, former senator of Florida; Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut; former House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri; and Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio."

"And there's numerous other sitting senators and congressmen -- too many to list here -- who improperly accepted salaries while off stumping for votes."

"The NTU says compliance with 2 U.S. Code 39 (Title 2, Chapter 3, section 39--VRR), requiring the secretary of the Senate and the chief administrative officer of the House of Representatives to deduct congressional salary for days of unexcused absences, has been sparse, but not nonexistent. "

"In 1971, Representative Edwin Edwards abided by the no-work, no-pay law while running for Louisiana governor," says the nonpartisan union."

" And while federal law does not require presidents to forfeit their pay while seeking re-election, the NTU notes that George W. Bush relinquished his governor's salary for days spent outside Texas campaigning for president in 2000."

I, personally, am contacting Emily Reynolds, the Secretary of the Senate, and Clerk of the House of Representatives and asking that this law be enforced.

What are you going to do?