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From Denny: You can always tell just how bad a job Congress is really doing when the voters want to fire them all, cut out their health care and raid their pension funds. After all, turn about is fair play for it is what Congress and the Obama White House have done to the American worker.
A recent poll from The Hill, which covers Washington politics and lawmaking extensively, reveals some dire predictions for the upcoming 2012 election. No one in Congress or the White House should consider their jobs to be safe. This is an angry electorate.
Since Congress has behaved so badly the past year the public now wants to treat them like a business owner with a bad employee: fire them, scale back their pay, eliminate or reduce their health care benefits and cut out the pension funds.
America's view of national lawmakers is dark and gloomy, not holding out much hope for a better government. The approval rating of Congress hovers around 9 percent - on a good day.
The reason this poll was more significant is because it included questions about how people felt about the prospects of their personal finances improving next year. Eighty percent did not predict much good on that front: 40 percent expect their finances to get worse in 2012 and 40 percent expect no growth and stuck at the same level.
Remember those high salaries that Congress voted for themselves during the Bush years? Well, under Obama they did nothing to lower those excessive pay hikes - and at a time when most Americans see their pay checks dwindling. Underemployment is the new work place buzz word and that soon translates into the inability to continue paying house mortgages, escalating foreclosures to new heights.
In this poll, it was 67 percent that said the congressional pay of a $174,000 base salary should be lowered - instead of raised or left as it is. When it comes to pensions, it was 69 percent who think those pensions should be retired along with the ineffective lawmakers.
Should Congress work more days than it currently does to finally get something done? Sixty-four percent want Congress to work more days than on their current calendar, dissatisfied with the snail's pace of passing legislation and the intractable attitude about solving important issues.
How was the new Republican majority in the House viewed? Well, not well at all. It was 38 percent who say it changed Washington for the worse. Only 28 percent claimed it improved Washington while another 28 percent saw it as no difference. After all, if nothing significant gets done then there really is no difference. The voters pay a lot of money to people who get nothing done, sabotaging the government's effectiveness.
Check out the gender differences in opinion:
How is the Republican takeover of the House perceived?
Men:
a good thing: 33 percent
changed Washington for the worse: 31 percent
made no difference: 28 percent
Women:
a good thing: 24 percent
changed Washington for the worse: 44 percent
Should Congress work more days?
Men:
yes - 56 percent
Women:
yes - 72 percent
Should the members' base salary be lowered?
Men:
yes - 69 percent
Women:
yes - 66 percent
Should congressional pensions be discontinued?
Men:
yes - 71 percent
Women:
yes - 66 percent
Note: Under the current pension system, members are eligible at age 62 if they have completed at least five years of service. They get the pension at age 50 if they have completed 20 years of service.
Click here to view data from The Hill Poll
Click here to view data from The Hill Poll
It's evident the only reason people run for political office these days is to get rich and do no serious work for the American people. They only work half days and half a year, yet whine about how they can't get out to the golf course more often. Somehow, GOP Speaker Boehner manages to keep his tan from his time on the links while his sidekick, Eric Cantor, uses insider trading to make his fortune off the backs of the American people.
Worse, Congress had the nerve to secretly vote themselves a bill a couple of years ago where they declared it legal to use insider trading information to basically lay bets on the stock market. Now, if you or I did such a thing we would get slammed in jail and fined up to our eyeballs.
It's no surprise as to how Congress is getting rich at our expense. They give the national Treasury to foreign countries and Big Banks in the form of foreign aid bribe money and We Made Crooked Bets bailouts while American jobs continue to travel overseas and out of sight. The politicians get rewarded from their benefactors by money coming into their various slush funds they have declared legal.
Is it any wonder that the public is disgusted with Congress and the Obama White House? With corruption this rampant the people no longer have confidence in their government: a bought government.
So, listen up, Washington politicians, your days are numbered in office. Either learn to work more hours for less pay and no benefits like the rest of America - or get fired.
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