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[filkertom]

Randy "Duke" Cunningham, the California Republican who pleaded guilty to accepting $2.4 million in bribes, will apparently keep his Congressional pension, perqs, and Navy pension, despite having completely betrayed the public trust for money. Oh, and the FEC let him pay his legal bills out of his campaign war chest.

Update: wcq and filkerdave have pointed out, correctly, that the Navy pension was earned before Cunningham became a legislator. You guys are right. That's his, and it should be. It has nothing to do with his conduct in office. But I think that, not only should he not get the Congressional pension and perqs, he should have to pay back what he earned as a legislator. Bastard.

Comments

[dubheach.livejournal.com]

So much for justice.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I'd be seriously peeved if anyone were to suggest he should lose his Navy retirement. That's something that he earned long before he went to Congress.

Also, he's hardly the first member of congress to pay legal fees out of campaign contributions. Jim Wright did the same thing when he was Speaker of the House.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Navy pension...I'm with wcq on this. But Congressional pension? and perqs?

Bah.

[jrittenhouse.livejournal.com]

Agree and double bah.

[skipjim.livejournal.com]

They'll never revise the rules the way things stand right now. Too many Republicans are tied up with Jack Abramhof (?) for them to be taking away privlidges for little things like felonies or accepting bribes.

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

Far as the perks go, I have no problem with him having privileges to visit a bunch of former colleagues who want nothing to do with him. I think this is actually poetic.

Cunningham has served in the House 17 years, and his right to his federal pension will not be affected by his crimes, according to a senior House aide familiar with the rules.

Coming from a family and an area rife with Federal Employees I have to ask this: How much pension is he entitled to get?

If it's like other federal employees (no faith in that at all) Federal Service that started 17 years ago would put him in the Federal Employees Retirement System. It depends on his age, but he may his "right to a federal pension" may be to a pension of little or nothing.

Still he shouldn't get it. Bribery is it's own (very risky) pension plan.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

Pension for a legislator is fairly high. Certainly higher than most of us will have when we retire. It isn't the standard federal pension.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

http://www.ntu.org/main/page.php?PageID=68

What snopes is saying is that they are still paying into Social security, and into the retirement funds. Their retirement is even with that, still much higher than the average income for their states.

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

Yes, but it *is* the standard federal pension. While it's a good deal, it's exactly what FEMA workers, Secret Service Agents, and NHTSA Statisticians all get.

[catlin.livejournal.com]

Um. My mother was a federal employee. When she collects her retirement, from 20 + years in service, she will make about 25-30 thousand a year, if that much. That is a significant difference numerically from what my senator will bring in.

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

Your Mom too? Mine was the NHTSA Statistician from my example.

I'm sure it is different. Is that a problem?

How does your Mom's govt salary compare to your Senator's (If she's an SES, it's the same or really close).

How long has your Senator served?

How old were each of them at retirement?

All of those factors are *huge* in determining one's Federal Pension.

And that's the way it should be. People who earn more, work longer, and retire older tend to get bigger pensions, and that's pretty universal. I'm okay with that concept.

My point is that you mom, my mom, and each of our Senators had the same pension plan. There is no special deal for CongressCritters here. Maybe some place else, but this ain't it.

If there is an unfairness, my example was that Mom wished she could have traded one facet (salary)for another (time on the job) though-

In my family's case, Mom was a GS-14 Step 9 or something she was earning far more than she needed to live on (she had a 5 year old Saturn SL-1, and a 1-BR apt), but since she had taken a hiatus from the feds for a while she only had 22 years or so in by age 66. This meant that with the formula they use, she couldn't have lived on her pension.

Three more years in though was going to make a massive difference in what she would have gotten, so she was sticking it out.

Fate being fickle, she died before retiring.

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

Snopes.com has Congressmen getting the standard FERS pension.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/pensions.asp

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

Not quite related, but I suddenly find myself wanting the wage of any and all politicians to be min. wage... with limited perqs...

[ericthemage.livejournal.com]

Why do we need to pay our Federal politicians at all? It used to be a volunteer position.

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

I can see some (read: fair) compensation, depending on how much time and effort has to go into the job. I can also see covering things like trip costs, if the job requires it. That, and I think the min. wage would suddenly catch up with what is really the min. needed funds, if all the politicians found they were having (in part or full) to rely off it... *grins*

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

Er, the Constitution is quite clear that members of Congress were being paid from the very start under the Constitution. (Article I, Section 6, Clause 1: "The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States....")

That being said, I'll opine that Congresscritters are overpaid.

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

Remember, Congresscritters (most of them) have to maintain two residences. One in their district, one near *the* district (ideally very close to The Hill). Many of them rent houses a/o apartments together. One or two actually have tried to live out of their Congressional Offices.

Problem is if you cut their salaries you will be left with Congressional Candidates who are some or all of the following:

1) Independently Wealthy.
2) Willing to Accept Bribes
3) Less Qualified than they otherwise might be.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Actually, lawmakers should be paid enough of a salary that they can function in moderately high social circles without feeling that they need to take bribes to maintain their existence. When people in positions of power aren't given fair salaries, they inevitably resort to bribery; this is why third world countries that don't pay their police and minor functionaries enough to live on have so much corruption. A congressman being paid a salary of something like $150K with my taxes does not offend me; what offends me is a CEO getting paid $100M, subsidized by my taxes to the extent that the company paying it gets to call it a legitimate business expense and therefore not pay tax on it. (Not to mention the fact that the CEO himself usually won't pay any taxes on it because he plows it through loopholes in a tax code so complex that it takes an army of accountants to even know what his tax returns and supporting documentation mean. But that's pretty far afield from the topic at hand.)

As for Rep. Cunningham, as far as I'm concerned the question of his pensions should be moot, because anyone caught taking bribes to mess up our country's defense should be executed for treason. The fact that nobody actually intended to make our country vulnerable to outside enemies does not lessen the fact that knowingly giving the defense budget to unqualified people does compromise our security, and if that isn't treason then it doesn't exist.

[jaydeenvy.livejournal.com]

Ridiculous. They should have rules for somebody stepping down differing from normal rules.. especially if its something like this.

Or at least make him pay his fines out of his own pocket.

The corruption of our current political system is very disillusioning.

:(

[arcane-k.livejournal.com]

Perhaps he's Canadian. Have you seen what our politicians have been up to lately?