http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/35050.htmlThis is part of what was exposed on Mornin' Joe:
Nearly 2,000 House of Representative staffers pulled down six-figure salaries in 2009, including 43 staffers who earned the maximum $172,500 — or more than three times the median U.S. household income.
Starting salaries on Capitol Hill are still low — many entry-level congressional jobs pay less than $30,000 a year. And many of the most highly paid staffers could make several times the maximum by jumping to lobbying and consulting jobs in the private sector.
But the salary data, compiled for POLITICO by LegiStorm.com, show that it’s possible to make an enviable living in Congress, even without winning an election.
The 43 staffers who maxed out at $172,500 — the salary cap for leadership and committee staffers — include John Lawrence, chief of staff to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Paula Nowakowski, the late chief of staff to House Minority Leader John Boehner; and House Parliamentarian John Sullivan. They earned only slightly less than rank-and-file members of Congress, who make $174,000.
All the salary data are part of the public record and are culled from congressional office disbursement reports.
Most of the staffers at the top salary level serve in upper-level committee and leadership office staffs, including staff directors, policy advisers and legislative counsels — positions that have often had direct input on the formation of major legislation, such as health care. Many of those staffers also have law degrees.
But while these top earners are a small percentage of the overall congressional work force, their numbers are growing at a rapid rate under the Democratic Congress. The number of staffers earning within the upper 3 percent of House salaries — currently $163,358 or more — has increased by nearly 39 percent in the past four years, according to LegiStorm data. In 2005, there were 203 staffers earning in the top 3 percent. That number spiked to 304 people in 2008 but then dropped in 2009 to 282, likely caused in part by the economic downturn.
Pelosi’s leadership office has several high earners, including Arshi Siddiqui, a tax and trade policy adviser who was closely involved in the formation of the Democratic health care legislation.
In a recent health care speech on the House floor, Pelosi praised Siddiqui’s work, saying that she was one of several who had done a “remarkable job — dazzling us with their knowledge and know-how.”
“These are people who could be making a lot more money in the private sector, but they choose to work here,” said Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly, who also makes $172,500. “Often some of the junior-level staffers make $25,000 a year and work very long hours. They’re certainly not being overpaid. Many of these people have a great deal of expertise.”
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.Readers' Comments (758)
Show the first 20 comments conserv Party: ConservativeReply #1 Mar. 26, 2010 - 5:34 AM ESTAnother discusting fact about our government. When will this stop.
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. chalons Party: NAReply #2 Mar. 26, 2010 - 5:36 AM ESTOf course they do.
What else would you expect from this crew as it wages war against evil private enterprise?
it's just like Obama's Rev. Wright building the house he did where he did.
The hypocrisy cannot be more thorough and complete. The deliberate intention to play its supporters for the useful idiots and fools that they are.
What's even more interesting is watching their net worth. Relative to their salaries, something often ain't quite right with the arithmetic.
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. iledechien Party: GreenReply #3 Mar. 26, 2010 - 5:37 AM ESTI think they will also will be under a different health care plan than the rest of us dumb Americans. Nothing surprises me anymore about this administration.
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. informed_citizen Party: IndependentReply #4 Mar. 26, 2010 - 5:39 AM ESTWhat a dumb article. And this is the # 1 story?
Politico is getting worse and worse. More like the political version of the National Enquirer.
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. qtaug Party: N/AReply #5 Mar. 26, 2010 - 5:39 AM ESTWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.....................
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. chalons Party: NAReply #6 Mar. 26, 2010 - 5:41 AM ESTinformed_citizen: Mar. 26, 2010 - 5:39 AM EST What a dumb article. And this is the # 1 story?
Sunlight hurts your eyes, eh?
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. informed_citizen Party: IndependentReply #7 Mar. 26, 2010 - 5:47 AM ESTIf a web site is as credible as it readers then Politico is in serious trouble. Its hard to read some of these post. Politico's readership (at least the bloggers) are becoming increasingly right wing, hateful, and unusually paranoid. Most of these guys probably keep aluminum foil on their windows..ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. informed_citizen Party: IndependentReply #8 Mar. 26, 2010 - 5:53 AM ESTSo both staffers on the left and the right have bloated salaries. Big friggin deal! What's new... Politico realizes the inherit paranoid nature of it's new right wing (low educated & most likely racist) readers and throws a red meat article like this. No different than the Enquirer. What a joke..ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. tree23 Party: NAReply #9 Mar. 26, 2010 - 5:59 AM ESTthey should jump to the private sector and make millions!
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. chalons Party: NAReply #10 Mar. 26, 2010 - 6:04 AM ESTthey should jump to the private sector and make millions!
Except there's a hitch. And it's a big one.
To make millions in the private sector, one must add value.
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. pauldia Party: NAReply #11 Mar. 26, 2010 - 6:06 AM ESTWheres' Ken Feinberg, our country's first and hopefully last PAY CZAR???
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. FoxFan Party: NAReply #12 Mar. 26, 2010 - 6:13 AM ESTWhy is this even a story. This is clearly a government that operates off bribes, threats, intimidation, lies, graft and corruption. According to several senior Democrats in Congress, this stuff always goes on. When they throw away billions of dollars into non-existent Congressional districts without blinking an eye, vote trillions of dollards for programs and not even track where the money went, why would anyone be surprised when a good bit of it sticks to their fingers?
Corruption goes where the money is, and as the power of Washington grows, so will the corruption.
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. conserv Party: ConservativeReply #13 Mar. 26, 2010 - 6:16 AM ESTpauldia: Mar. 26, 2010 - 6:06 AM EST Wheres' Ken Feinberg, our country's first and hopefully last PAY CZAR???
The fact that we even have a pay czar is threatening and scary given that we are capitalists.
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. chalons Party: NAReply #14 Mar. 26, 2010 - 6:23 AM ESTFoxFan: Mar. 26, 2010 - 6:13 AM EST Why is this even a story.
People drawing maximum pay for putting Americans out of work is a story. Spending billions here billions there willy nilly, passing laws whose economic stress forces layoff and business closure, running up debt that ensures that the poitical class will confiscating and more more of our income just to make interest payments.
Have you noticed that the only sector that is booming during this recession is government?
They are sucking the rest of the nation dry to bloat themselves.
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. Wodheila Party: ConservativeReply #15 Mar. 26, 2010 - 6:26 AM EST
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“…it takes a long time to do the necessary administrative steps...to put the legislation together to control the people.”
Rep. John Dingell.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. conserv Party: ConservativeReply #16 Mar. 26, 2010 - 6:28 AM ESTchalons: Mar. 26, 2010 - 6:23 AM EST Have you noticed that the only sector that is booming during this recession is government?
They are sucking the rest of the nation dry to bloat themselves.
We have really taken a wrong turn in the road. It will take years to undo what this administration is doing to us. The only real hope we have is to vote these gold diggers out of office. If not, I am certain to eventually live in a different country than I was born into.
.ReplyQuoteReport Abuse. djnFLA Party: NAReply #17 Mar. 26, 2010 - 6:29 AM ESTAND
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